LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Cliap. Copyright No. 

Shell' , 13 6 S' 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



N 



ON SOUTHERN POETRY 
PRIOR TO I860. 



A DISSERTATION 



.PRESENTED TO... 



The Faculty of the University of Virginia as a 

Part of the Requirennents for the Degree of 

Doctor of Philosophy. 



...BY... 

SIDNEY ERNEST BRADSHAW, 

JUNE, 1900, 



L 



l ie— i 
1V€d| 



H4255 

L ihrary of Concj 
Iwu COPtCS RtaiV€D 

DEC 5 1900 

Copyright Miry 

SECOND COPY 

Oeitv«rad to 
ORDtR DIVISION 

DEC 101900 



«« 






COPYUIGHT, lOOO, 

Bv S. E. BRADSHAV^r. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page. 
Introduction, ----------7 

Abbreviations, ---------- 9 

Seventeenth Centurj'^, - - - -- -- -11 

Eighteenth Century, -------- 26 

Nineteenth Century, .._----_ 37 

Summary, -__ 139 

Appendixes : 

I. Chronology of Poetry, ------ 135 

II. Bibliography, ---.--._ 143 

Index of Authors, --------- 153 

Vita, - ---------- 161 



PKEFACE. 

The difficulties to be met in an attempt to write a history 
of Southern poetry are manifold. The first and perhaps 
greatest is the scarcity of material, which is due to several 
causes. Much of the verse written before the Civil War was 
published in periodicals that flourished for a short period, 
then died and were lost and forgotten. No adequate list of 
these has been published, though a partial one is appended to 
a paper "On the Development of American Literature from 
1815 to 1833," by Dr. Wm. B. Cairns, of the University of Wis- 
consin.* The newspapers of the day also contained a consid- 
erable amount of verse, but on account of their transient 
character they were lost from view even sooner than the 
magazines. Of the poetry which was published in book form 
much is entirely out of print, and can be found only here 
and there in private libraries. 

Another serious difficulty is the fact that much poetry was 
written and not acknowledged by the authors. They chose 
often to conceal their identity under a pseudonym, and fre- 
quently by signing no name at all. In some cases this ano- 
nymity is explained by the character of the works, especially 
satires, but in others there is apparently no reason except 
that authorship was not favorably regarded by the more 
practical spirits whose intellectual energies were absorbed 
largely in legal and political affairs. Accordingly many of 
those who ventured to write concealed their identity often 
so effectually that at this late day it is simply impossible to 
find them out. 

So far as known, no adequate bibliography of strictly 
Southern poetry has ever been made, and much time has 
therefore necessarily been spent in gathering material for our 
paper. For the benefit of future workers in this important 

*The library in which Dr. Cairns worked, that of the State Historical 
Society of Wisconsin, is said to be probably unsurpassed in its collection 
of magazines of this early period. 

[3] 



Preface. 



field of American literature, we have included in an appendix 
the bibliography we have been forced to make. It is far 
from complete, but it is nearer complete than any prepared 
heretofore. 

Another difficulty of a similar cjiaracter is that no com- 
plete chronology of Southern poets has been made. In the 
various works dealing with Southern literature are usually 
included alphabetical lists of authors, but little attempt is 
made to arrange them chronologically or to indicate which 
have indulged in verse. The lists seldom approach perfec- 
tion and omit many of the minor poets altogether. Often, 
too, these alphabetical lists are lacking in the dates of birth 
and death, so that it is not easy to tell where the author 
belongs. It was determined, therefore, to study the poets as 
nearly as possible in the chronological order of their first 
published work; for example, E. C. Pinkney follows those 
who published previous to 1823; W. G. Simms, those who pub- 
lished previous to 1825, and so on. There are, however, a few 
exceptions, the reasons for which will be apparent. There 
has been not only a scarcity of material in the poetry itself, 
but also a scarcity of material ahoiit the poets and poetry. 
Resort has been made to the better known histories of 
American literature and the dictionaries and cyclopaedias of 
biography and literature. The Cyclopaedia of American 
Literature, by Evert A. and George L. Duyckinck, published 
by Charles Scribner in two volumes in 1856, with the Supple- 
ment published in 1866, has been of great value. Many facts 
were found there which are not recorded elsewhere, and such 
of these as seemed pertinent to our work have been used, 
including many of the poems quoted or referred to. As is 
usual with works of its class, Duyckinck follows no definite 
plan in the treatment of authors, but includes all the infor- 
mation available, even certain details of gossip which, though 
interesting, might have been omitted. Valuable as Duyckinck 
has been, however, we have relied in large measure upon 
that great magazine of literary information, S. Austin Alli- 
bone's Dictionary of Authors. The first volume appeared in 
1858; the second and third in 1870. In 1891 these were sup- 
plemented by two volumes prepared by John Foster Kirk, 
and the completed work thus brought down to about 1890 is 



Preface. 5 

.perhaps the best for general reference that has yet been 
published. But even this has been found wanting in much 
information that was especially desired. Many Southern 
writers have not been mentioned at all, but we realize that 
hov/ever sincere be the effort to make a dictionary complete 
there v/ill inevitably be some important omissions. The Sted- 
man and Hutchinson Library of American Literature, in 
eleven volumes (with short biographies in Volume XL), has 
been useful for its selections and chronological arrangement, 
i^ppleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography, in six volumes, 
has afforded helpful biographical details; usually literary 
facts in the lives of the subjects treated are subordinated to 
matters deemed of a more practical character. 

In addition to the above and other general reference works, 
we have consulted all the available texts dealing either in a 
special or general way with Southern literature. Among these 
may be mentioned Manly's Southern Literature, Rutherford's 
American Authors, Pancoast's Introduction to Amxcrican Lit- 
erature, Griswold's Poets and Poetry of America, Stedman's 
Poets of America, Richardson's American Literature, Tyler's 
Plistory of American Literature (1607-1765), and Literary 
History of the American Revolution. Miss Rutherford's book 
is probably the fullest in dealing with Southern authors, but 
her work v/ould have been far more valuable had she con- 
fined it exclusively to Southern authors and not attempted 
the whole field of American Literature. Manly and Ruther- 
ford both contain valuable lists of Southern writers. Gris- 
wold, on the whole, inclines to slight the South. Stedman is 
reasonably fair, though his single lengthy discussion of a 
Southern poet, Edgar Allan Poe, is rather destructive. Pan- 
. coast, in his chapter devoted to Literature in the South, evi- 
dently means to be just, and his short sketch impresses us 
as being the most sympathetic we have found by an author 
not from the South. Richardson's point of view is not suffi- 
ciently varied, and many of his conclusions are not unques- 
tionable. Professor Moses Coit Tyler's works dealing with 
the literature and the history of the seventeenth and eigh^ 
teenth centuries are the very best yet written on those 
periods. They represent many years of study and investiga- 
tion under exceptionally favorable conditions, and to the 



6 Preface. 

student of American literature, of whatever section, are inval- 
uable. 

The essays of Thomas Nelson Page in his volume on "The 
Old South" have been suggestive and helpful, especially the 
one on Authorship in the South before the War. Professor 
William P. Trent's "William Giimore Simms" (American Men 
of Letters Series) is an admirable study, in many ways, of 
ante-bellum literary and political conditions in the South, 
though Professor Trent's point of view is often not that of 
the representative Southerner. Both of these works deal 
with the general literary conditions that prevailed, and ac- 
count for the fact that the amount of pure literature produced 
in the South was not greater. 

The best collection of American poetry in existence is with- 
out doubt the Harris Collection in the library of Brown 
University. Two catalogues of this have been published — 
one prepared in 1874 by Mr. C. Fiske Harris, the original 
owner, and the other in 1886 by Mr. John C. Stockbridge. 
The latter is fuller in bibliographical details, but omits many 
titles, particularly of Southern poetry, included by Mr. Harris. 
Both of these we have freely used in the preparation of a 
bibliography. 

From the general inaccessibility of original material it will' 
be seen that our work has been mainly to prepare the way 
for subsequent workers in this field. At the beginning it was 
impossible to know what could be accomplished. The com- 
paratively small amount of available material was scat- 
tered widely; it had to be brought together; the biblio- 
graphy and chronology had to be prepared; and facts had to 
be ascertained from many different sources. Entire origi- 
nality of treatment is not claimed. We do feel, however, that 
much of what we have done has not been done before, and 
we hope that it will not be without some value to those who 
come after us. 

Acknowledgment is gratefully made to Dr. Chas. W. Kent 
for much valuable advice and for the loan of several indis- 
pensable volumes, and to Mr. Frederick W. Page, Librarian 
of the University of Virginia, for his unwearied courtesy in 
the library. The Autiiou. 



mTEODUCTION. 

The purpose of this paper is to record the results of 
a study of the poets of the Southern States and their 
poetry written from the time of the settlement at 
Jamestown to the time immediately preceding the out- 
break of the Civil War — the period from 1607 to 1860. 

By "Southern" is meant the States now usually iden- 
tified as such. With the growth of the nation the terms 
designating the sections of the coimtry have changed 
their signification more or less; what was "the South" 
to the colonists and to the makers of the Constitution 
is now extended much further southward and westward ; 
what was formerly "the West" is now "the Middle 
West/' and what was once the unexplored, indefinite 
"Far West," is now simply "the West." The lines 
drawn by the Civil War will serve best, perhaps, to 
mark the geographical section to which we limit our- 
selves. It must be added, however, that though divided 
in war sentiment, Kentucky is included as a Southern 
State, and sometimes even the District of Columbia 
because of the Southern influences in Washington in 
ante-bellum days. 

In this connection it is proper to indicate also what 
is understood here as a Southern author. In most in- 
stances, birth in a Southern State has been deemed suffi- 
cient for classifying an author as Southern, though in 
one or two cases removal to the I^orth has brought the 

[7] 



8 Introduction. 

author under the influeuces of tliat section in the hiter 
years of his life. In a few instances, an author born in 
some other section has come to live and produce his 
work in the Soutli, and been strongly influenced by his 
Southern surrounding?. In still other instances, the 
work of the author has been published in the South, 
though he himself remained in the section for only a 
few years and then moved away. It has been thought 
best, therefore, not to draw distinctions too narrowly. 
When an author is named as Southern, however, the 
writer thinks some good reason will be found for so 
including him. 

The scheme of treatment adopted is to take the po- 
etry by centuries. With certain exceptions it was found 
impracticable to attempt to trace the connection be- 
tween the poetry and the epochs of national history; if, 
indeed, apart from the patriotic ballads and song-s in- 
spired by various wai's, there is any connection. By far 
the greater portion of the verse seems to have been pro- 
duced independently of historical events, arising appa- 
rently more from the local conditions in Avhicli the 
poets happened to be than from anything else. Conse- 
quently, our study has been largely of individuals. 



ABBEEVIATIONS. 

'Appleton — Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biog- 
raphy. 6 vols. 'New York. 1887-1889. 

^Allibone — AUibone's Dictionary of Authors, with Sup- 
plement. 5 vols. Phila. 
Alclen — Alden's Cyclopaedia of Universal Literature. 
20 vols. ISTew York. 
> Duyckinck — Duyckinck's Cyclopaedia of American Lit- 
erature, and Supplement. 3 vols. New York. 

^ Griswold — Griswold's Poets and Poetry of America. 
11th ed. Phila. 1852. 

H. — Catalogue of Harris Collection of American Po- 
etry, by C. Piske Harris. Providence. 1874. 

V H. C. — Harris Collection of American Poetry at Brown 
LTniversity. 
Manly — Miss Louise Manly's Southern Literature, 

1579-1895. Eichmond. 1895. 
E'at. Cyclo. — The National Cyclopaedia of American 

Biography. 9 vols. 
Rutherford — Miss Mildred Rutherford's American 
Authors, II. Atlanta, Ga. 

^ S. & H.— Stedman & Hutchinson's Library of Ameri- 
can Literature. 11 vols. New York, 

- Stockbridge — Joh^i C. Stockb ridge's Catalogue of the 
Harris Collection of American Poetry. Provi- 
dence. 1886. 
2 [9] 



10 Ahhreviations. 

Trent — Win. P. Trent's J^ifc of AVilliani Gilniore Sinmis 

(American Men of Letters). Boston. 1892. 
Tyler — M. C. Tyler's History of American Literature. 

1G07-17G5. 2 vols, in one. Xew York. 
Tyler, Rev. — M. 0. Tyler's Literary History of the 

American Revolution. 1763-1783. 2 vols. Xcw 

York. 1897. 
AVillmott — 11. A. Willmott's Poets of the Nineteenth 

Century, with additions by E. A. Duyckinck. New 

York. '^ 



ON SOUTHERN POETRY PRIOR TO 1S60. 



THE SEYEl^TEENTH CEIsFTURY. 

"The first American book press was set up in Cambridge, 
Mass., A. D. 1640, and with resources of the scantiest limit. 
But we term all literature American that was produced by the 
heroic pioneers whose thought, learning, and resolution shaped 
the colonial mind." — Preface to Stedman cC- Eiitcliinson' s Lihrary 
of American Literature. 

The seventeenth century in the history of Ameri- 
can literature can hardly be cited as a period fruitful 
in either prose or poetry. To the reader of colonial his- 
tory but little reflection is needed to recall the condi- 
tions that were so unfavorable to the literary spirit. The 
minds of men were occupied with affairs of practical 
importance. They had settled a new country — houses 
were to be built; crops were to be cultivated; Indians 
were to be guarded against; explorations were to be 
made; settlements were to be extended. All these 
things and many others of a similar character that in- 
evitably come to colonists demanded their mental and 
physical energies. There was little time for the culti- 
\^ation of literature, even had they been so inclined, 
which, from the very character of many of the set- 
tlers, they were not. It is true, if all Idnds of composi- 
tion be included — histories, narratives of exploration 

[11] 



12 On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

and adveutiirc, seriiioiis, controversial tracts, etc. — that 
the amount written in America from IGOT to the close 
of the century was large. But of literature in the 
higher and narrower sense the amount was small. 
Though a few "oases" may be found, the bulk of the 
writing is a dreary Avaste to the modern reader. 

If this be true of American literature as a whole^ it 
is not surprising that it is also true of literatui-e in the 
Southern colonies, and Southern colonies is here vir- 
tually synonymous with Virginia. Besides these gen- 
eral conditions there were special conditions in Virginia 
that went far to increase the barrenness of literary pro- 
duction. They may be recounted briefly. 

First, was the character of the settlers. We are told 
by our historians that during the forty years immedi- 
ately succeeding the landing at Jamestown the settlers 
who came or were brought over from England were of 
a very inferior quality, both personally and socially; 
that is, of course, the majority. "Many of them were 
tramps from the pavements of London; vagrants who 
wandered to Virginia because they had to wander some- 
where; gentlemen of fashion who were out at the elbow; 
aristocrats gone to seed; "' broken men,' adventurers, 
bankrupts, crinnnals. " " From about 1640 to 16G0 many 
of the emigrants were of much finer and stronger 
quality, and belonged to the party of sympathizers with 
the King in his struggles with the Puritans. After tlie 
Bestoration another class of emigrants also came — men 
of the Cromwellian party, who chose Virginia in ])re- 
ference to New England on account of the climate. But 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 13 

with most of the colonists the royalist views in politics 
and the views of the English church in religious mat- 
ters prevailed. It was pretty much a ''continuation of 
English society." The 23eople were ' 'impatient of asceti- 
cism, of cantj of long faces, of long prayers; they re- 
joiced in games, sports, dances, merry music, and in a 
free, jovial, roistering life.'' 

Second, was the character of the settlements. Land 
was plentiful, and, with the ideal in mind of the stately 
English lord and his vast estates, the inclination of the 
new-comers was to settle, not in groups of families 
forming neighborhoods, but in ''detached establish- 
ments forming individualized domestic centres." In 
this way families were isolated on large plantations, and 
the communication of mind with mind, of social inter- 
course, was cut off to a great extent. jN^early all those 
public enterprises that require unity in action and a 
common support were either poorly attended to or en- 
tirely neglected; roads were bad; court-houses, school- 
houses, churches were lacking; there was no promotion 
of commerce or manufactures; there was little postal 
communication. The direct result was that public edu- 
cation and public morality suffered; the masses were 
ignorant not only of higher education, but of good pri- 
mary education as well; sometimes the parishes were 
so large that the parishioners lived fifty miles away 
from the parish church, and hence arose "paganism, 
atheism, or sectaries." But these conditions were not 
due wholly to the people themselves. Many realized 
the disadvantages under which they were living, and 



M: On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

wished for better schools for their children. Yet cir- 
ciunstances were against them. Sir William Berkeley, 
the (governor from 1G41 to 1677, in reply to an inquiry 
from the English commissioners as to the condition of 
Virginia, said: ^'I thank God there are no free schools 
nor printing, and I lioi)e we shall not have these hun- 
dred years, for learning has brought disobedience and 
heresy and sects into the world, and printing has di- 
vulged them and libels against the best government. 
God keep us from both." The earliest record of a print- 
ing press is 1681, and for many years it was the settled 
policy of the home government to put a strict restraint 
upon the freedom of publication of any kind. jSTor was 
religious thought entirely free. Various sects were 
persecuted and prosecuted on account of their religious 
opinions and practices. In the face of all this, the lite- 
rary spirit was stifled, and of original poetry there was 
but a minimum. 

The first poem on an American theme appears to be 
*'Xewes from Virginia," written by H. Ricn and pub- 
lished in London in 1610. Of Rich little is known ''be- 
yond his statements in the preface to 'Newes from Vir- 
ginia' that he was a 'soldier' and made the Virginian 
voyage, returning before his book was i)ublished." In 
his address To the Keader, after apologizing for his 
poem, he says: ''But I intreat thee to take this as it is, 
and before many days expire I will promise thee the 
same work more at large. "^' I did feare prevention by 

♦This work more at large may have been. "Good Speed to 
Virginia," which was entered in Stationers' Register in 1610, 
but of which no copy has been discovered. 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 15 

some of your writers, if they sliould have gotten but 
some part of the newes by the tayle, and therefore, 
though it be rude, let it passe with thy liking, and in 
so doing I shall like well of thee; but, however, I have 
not long to stay. If thou wilt be unnaturall to thy 
countryman, thou maist — I must not loose my patry- 
monie. I am for Virginia againe, and so I will bid thee 
heartily farewell with an honest verse: 

As I came hether to see my native land, 
To waft me backe, lend me thy gentle hand — 
Thy loving countryman, 

"R. R." 

Which goes to show that Rich regarded himself as a 
citizen of the colony. 

There are twenty-two iambic-tetrameter, eight-line 
stanzas (also sometimes printed iambic-octameter four- 
line stanzas), the second, fourth, sixth, and eighth rhym- 
ing. The matter of the poem is an account of the expe- 
riences of Sir Thomas Gates and his company on the 
^Tland of Devils (otherwise called Bermoothawes)" — 
Shakespeare's "still vex'd Bermoothes." As would be 
expected, the grade of the poetry is not high, but the 
verse flows fairly well and the jingle is not unpleasant. 

For the poem see Brown's Genesis, L, 420, and S. & 
H., L, 21. See, also, S. & IT., XT, 576, and Diet. Nat. 
Biog., Yol. 48, 126. 

Sixteen years seem to have elasped before any other 
poetry that may be claimed as American was written. 
In 1626 George Sandys (1577-1643), Treasurer of the 



10 On Soidhcrn Poetry Prior to 1800. 

Colony, published his Translation of OvicVs Metamor- 
phoses. 

Sandys received his education at Oxford. In 1621 
he became colonial treasurer of Virginia. He is cred- 
ited Avith having built the first water-mill, though just 
where in the colony is uncertain ; with having promoted 
the establishment of iron-works, and having in 1622 
introduced ship-building. His translation of the last 
ten books of Ovid's Metamorphoses, which he accom- 
plished during his stay, is the first literary production 
of anv value that was written in this countrv. In his 
dedication to Charles I. he says it was ^^limned by that 
imperfect light which was snatched from the hours of 
night and repose. '^ He returned to England in 1624. 

Sandys is well knoA\Ti as a traveller from his "Rela- 
tion of a Journey in the Countries on the Mediter- 
ranean Sea and the Holy Land" (London, 1615); -he 
published, also, metrical versions of the Psalms (1636), 
the Song of Solomon (1639), and other parts of the 
Scriptures. 

The condition of the colony Avas very unsettled, and 
under the year 1623, Stith (History of Va. (1747), 
303) informs us that "in the midst" of these tumults and 
alarms the Muses were not silent. For at this time Mr. 
George Sandys, the company's treasurer of Virginia, 
made his translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses." And 
Abiel Holmes {Annals of America) says: "One of the 
earliest literary productions of the English colonists in 
America of which we have any notice is a translation of 
Ovid's Metamorphoses, made this year (1623) by George 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 17 

Sandys, Treasurer of tlie Virginia Company/' It should 
be mentioned, however, that Hohnes quotes Stith. 
Michael Drayton"^ (the English poet) recommends his 
friend to finish in Virginia the translation of Ovid, five 
books of which had appeared. It would seem from this 
that the earlier portion of the work had been published 
before Sandys went to Virginia. But whether this be 
so or not, the fact that the greater part of the transla- 
tion was made under serious diffioulties when in the 
Colony, and that it is the first considerable book written 
in America will always give it importance. 

Though Sandys returned to England, he is claimed 
as a Southern poet, for he kept up his connection with 
Virginia to the last. Bancroft says (Hist, of U. S., I., 
220, Ed. 183J^), under March, 1642: ''George Sandys, 
an agent of the Coloiiy, and an opponent of the Royal 
party in England, presented a petition to the Com- 
mons," etc. 

The meter used in the Ovid was the heroic couplet, 
which may have been a potent reason for Pope's admi- 
ration of the work many years later. Unfortu- 

* "And (worthy George) by industry and use, 

Let's see what lines Virginia will produce. 
Go on with Ovid as you have begun 
With the first five books; let your numbers run 
Glib as the former, so shall it live long, 
And do much honor to the English tongue." 

* "And though for this I do not thirst. 

Yet I should like it well to be the first 
Whose numbers hence into Virginia flew, 
So (noble Sandys) for this time adieu!" 

3 



18 On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

nately, only a few verses of the translation arc avail- 
able — too few from which to form an original estimate 
of the whole — so we shall have to be satisfied with the 
substance of the estimate given in the Dictionary of 
National Biography. The text was followed closely, 
and the translation was made in the same number of 
lines as the original, a process that was injurious to its 
poetic quality and clearness. But Sandys possessed 
exceptional metrical dexterity, and the refinement with 
which he handled the couplet entitles him to rank with 
Denham and Waller. More than either of them, pro- 
bably, he helped to develop the capacity of heroic rhyme. 
He was almost the fii'st to vary the caesura efficiently, 
and, by adroitly balancing one couplet against another, 
he anticipated some of the effects w^hich Dryden and 
Pope brought to perfection. Both Dryden and Pope 
read Sandys^s Ovid in boyhood. Dryden afterwards 
thought that the literal method employed by Sandys 
obscured the meaning, and so he desigTied a new trans- 
lation of the Metamorphoses, which Sir Samuel Garth 
completed and published in 171Y. Pope liked Sandys's 
translation extremely well, and in early life tried his 
own skill on the same theme, but subsequently ridiculed 
Garth's efforts to supersede the older translator. 

"His Ovid is a very fine work, and contains some 
magnificent lines, though perhaps the versification is 
not so smooth and harmonious as in some of his later 
poetry.'' — R. Hooper. 

"Pope was a great admirer of Sandys's Ovid, and its 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 19 

popularity was such that it had reached an eighth edition, 
in 1690:'—Ihid. 

"To Mr. George Sandys: 

Sweet-tongued Ovid, though strange tales he told, 

Which gods and men did act in days of old; 

What various shapes for love sometimes they took, 

To purchase what they aim'd at; could he look 

But back upon himself, he would admire 

The sumptuous bravery of that rich attire 

Which Sandys hath clad him with; and then place this 

His change amongst their Metamorphosis." 

— Sandys's Works, I., Iv.vv. 

" Then dainty Sandys, that hath to English done - 
Smooth-sliding Ovid, and hath made him run 
With so much sweetness and unusual grace. 
As though the neatness of the English pace 
Should tell the jetting Latin that it came 
But slowly after, as though stiff and lame." 

— M. Drayton, Sandys's Works, I., Ixxvi, 

From the quotations given and from the numerous 
verses by eminent persons commendatory of his scrip- 
tural paraphrases, it is clear that Sandys's work was 
held in high esteem by his contemporaries. The bulk 
of his poetry was paraphrase and translation, the only 
original poems in his works (Hooper Ed., 2 vols., 1872) 
appearing to be "Deo Opt. Max." (II., 403), "A Pane- 
gyric to the King" (II., 505), and "Urania to the 
Queen" (II., 508). These are all written in rhymed 
couplets, and betray in their frequent classical allusions 
the influence of his studies in Ovid. Having acquired 
facility and ease of expression by much translating, 
the author composes an original verse without apparent 



20 On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

effort, but in general it would be difficult to distinguish 
the (jualities found in these poems from those found in 
his translations and paraphrases. Originality, in a wide 
sense, cannot accordingly be claimed for Sandys. Even 
in '^Christ's Passion" — a tragedy in five acts — it is 
Hug'o Grotius "whose steps afar off I follow." 

It is unnecessary to dwell upon Sandys and discuss 
either his life or his poetry further. The prominence 
of his position in the history of Southern poetry is plain. 

For full account of his life, criticisms of his poetry, 
and discussion of the date of the publication of his Ovid, 
see Introduction, Vol. I., AVorks (Ed. 11. Hooper, 2 
vols. London. 1872). See, also, Tyler's Hist. Amer. 
Lit., I., 51 sq. ; Fiske's Old Virginia and Her Neigh- 
bors, I., 232; Brow^n's Genesis of the U. S., IL, 994; 
Caj)t. John Smith's AVorks, Arber ed., 564; Duyckinck, 
L, 1; Allibone, IL, 1928; Diet. Xat. Biog. (art. 
Sandys); Appleton, V., 389. 

In the early annals of American colonial liistory the 
name of Captain John Smith (1580-1031) occupies a 
very important place. It would be difficult to overesti- 
mate the value of the work he did at Jamestown. And 
he was not only a practical man of affairs, but also a 
rather voluminous writer of history, Avhich, if not now 
always accepted Avithout question, nevertheless has to 
be carefully considered by students of the colonial 
period. Were it within our province to deal with prose, 
John Smith would be given a large proportion of the 
space devoted to the seventeenth century. The amount 
of i)oetry, on the contrary, that he produced was hardly 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 21 

sufficient to give him the title of poet at all. In the 
present study, however, it is not improper to include 
him as such. 

Excepting possibly a few lines scattered here and 
there throughout his writings, Captain Smith seems to 
have been the author of but a single poem. In his 
works this poem is assigned to 1630, the year imme- 
diately preceding his death. ^'The Sea Mark" is a 
wrecked ship, which utters a warning to other ships lest 
they, too, become careless and steer amiss and meet the 
same fate. The conception is a simple one, but effec- 
tively wrought out. The three eight-line stanzas with 
their not uningenious rhyme scheme possess simplicity 
and force, and we cannot help wondering what Captain 
Smith • would have accomplished had he given more 
attention to verse. 

For the poem see Duyckinck, I., 7, and Smith's 
Works, Arber ed., 922. 

In 1662 was printed '^A Song of Sion. Written by 
a Citizen thereof, whose outward Habitation is in Vir- 
ginia, and being sent over to some of his friends in 
England, the same is found fitting to be Published, for 
to warn the Seed of Evil-doers." With an additional 
postscript from another hand (M. M., that is Martin 
Mason(?) ) Sm. 4°, pp. 12. E'o place. 

The closing lines are: 

" Glory to God, whose goodness doth increase, 
Praise him ever^ who gives to us his peace. 
Not else I feel, that now to say I have, 
But that I am, your fellow-friend, John Grave." 



22 071 Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

Cf. Stockbridge, 104. Of John Grave nothing is 
known. 

George Alsop (1G38 ) came from England to 

Maryland in 1658, and resided there 1658-'62. He was 
a staunch royalist, and the expression of his opinions 
may have been the cause of his making the journey to 
tlie new country. But the details of his life are meagre, 
and his name has come down chiefly as the author of 
"A (/haracter of the Province of Maryland," which was 
published in London in ICGG. It is written in both 
prose and verse, and is "sl heterogeneous mixture of 
fact and fiction, of description and speculation, of wild 
fun and wild nonsense." The dedication is to Lord Bal- 
timore and the "merchant adventurers for Maryland." 
A jocular spirit runs through the book, and sometimes 
the author allows himself to become coarse and indeli- 
cate. He pokes fun even at himself, but he does not 
forget to sound his own praises. "For I dwell so far 
from my neighbors that if I do not praise myself nobody 
else will." He gives a direct account of Maryland in 
four parts — first, the country; second, its inhabitants; 
third, the arrangements for carrying poor people thither; 
fourth, traffic and agriculture. Then follows a descrip- 
tion of "the wild and naked Indians of Maryland, their 
customs, manners, absurdities, and religion," and finally 
some of his letters which he wrote from Maryland to 
friends at home. 

Alsop's verse is indicative of a lively spirit and 
fluent pen rather than of a true poet's mind. It has a 
fresh, rollicking, vigorous, off-hand manner that would 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 23 

be expected in a man who was writing for immediate 
effect without reference to permanence. The lines 
"Upon a Pnrple Cap" are slightly suggestive of the skull 
episode in Hamlet. They show likewise Alsop's feeling 
towards Oliver Cromwell, and, together with the fact 
that when the former left England he went to Mary- 
land, that he was probably a Catholic. Other lines show 
his opinion of "Mary-Land," which he calls "the only 
emblem of tranquillity." 

What was thought of his book by his friend "H. W." 
may be seen in the lines underneath Alsop's portrait : 

" View here the Shadow whose Ingenious Hand 
Hath drawne exact the Province Mary Land 
Display'd her Glory in such Sceenes of Witt 
That those that read must fall in Love with it, 
For which his labour hee deserves the praise 
As well as Poets doe the wreath of Bays. 
Anno Do. 1666. Aetatis suae 28. H. W." 

The prefatory address to the book itself is vigorous, 
to say the least. Alsop does not scruple in the use of 
his figures of speech, and his imagery is accordingly not 
the most delicate. All the quotations found are in 
rhymed couplets. 

Among his other verses are the following: 

" 'Tis said the gods lower down that chain above 
That ties both Prince and Subject up in love; 
And if the fiction of the gods be true, 
Few, Mary-Land, in this can boast but you. 
Live ever blest, and let those clouds that do 
Eclipse most states, be always lights to you; 
And dwelling so, you may forever be 
The only emblem of Tranquillity." 



24 On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860, 

Upon a Purple Cap. 

" Hail from the dead, or from Eternity, 
Thou Velvet Relique of Antiquity; 
Thou which appear'st here in thy purple hue, 
Tell 's how the dead within their tombs do do; 
How those Ghosts fare within each marble cell. 
Where amongst them for ages thou didst dwell. 
What brain didst cover there? Tell us that we 
Upon our knees vail hats to honor thee: 
And if no honor's due, tell us whose pate 
Thou basely coveredst, and we'll jointly hate: 
Let 's know his name, that we may show neglect; 
If otherwise, we'll kiss thee with respect. 
Say, didst thou cover Noll's old brazen head. 
Which on the top of Westminster's high lead 
Stands on a pole, erected to the sky. 
As a grand trophy to his memory? 
From his perfidious skull didst thou fall down, 
In a disdain to honor such a crown 
With three-pile velvet? Tell me, hadst thou thy fall 
From the high top of that Cathedral?" 

*^A Character of the Province of Maryland" was re- 
published, with Introduction and Xotes, by J. G. Shea, 
New York, 1869, and Baltimore, 1880. (^f. S. c^^ H., I., 
405 sq., and XL, Appendix; also, Tyler, I., 65 sq., and 
Appleton, I., 60. 

Soon after the Revolutionary War some manu- 
scripts that had been preserved in an old and honorable 
family in the Northern Neck of Virginia were discov- 
ered. Kxamination showed that they related to Bacon's 
Rebellion of 1676, and Avere evidently written by one 
or more adherents of Nathaniel Bacon, thus throwini^ 
nmch new light on Bacon's character and u])on the 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 25 

events with whicli his name was connected. These docu- 
ments (called the Burwell Papers from the name of the 
family in King William county^ by whom they were 
first given to the public) are of great historical interest, 
and a full account of them may be found in Tyler's His- 
tory of American Liter ature, I., 69 sq. They are in- 
cluded in our study only because of the sorrowing verses 
which thev contain on Bacon's death. 

The death of Bacon was surrpunded with mystery, as 
was also the place of his burial. The writer of the poem 
laments that. Death had so manifested his spleen and 
slain 

" Our hopes of safety, liberty, our all, 
Which, through thy tyranny, with him must fall. 
To its late chaos," 

and continues in the same vein of sorrow and regret for 
forty-four lines in rhymed couplets, the last four lines 
being somewhat epitaphic in character. 

Who the author was is not known. Tyler advances 
the opinion that the manuscripts were written by one 
Cotton, of Acquia Creek, husband of Ann Cotton and 
author of a letter from Jamestown, June*9, 1676, but 
gives no reason for his opinion (Cf. Tyler, L, 79, note). 
Whoever the author was his verses have distinct literary 
quality and give indication of practice in composition, 
and, considering the general literary sterility of the 
period, their excellence is surprising. 

"Bacon's Death, Eulogy, and Execration," Burwell 
Papers. Published 1814, 2 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., I., 
27-62. Also, "Proceedings of Mass. Hist. Soc, 1866- 
4 



26 On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

'G7." Cf. Tyler, I., 69 sq.; Doyle's Eiig. Colonies iu 
America (Md., Ya., and Carolinas), 322, note. 

The Southern poetry of the seventeenth century may 
be summed up very l)rieii^^ It was small in amount 
and with little variation in metrical form. Taking 
Sandys as the most prominent poet, we may say the bulk 
was translation. Of the few original poems the lines 
on Bacon were the best the century produced. The 
writers were probably all foreign-born, and were doubt- 
less influenced by the reigning models in England, but 
their work was produced in America, and they are there- 
fore included here as American writers. 



THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUKY. 

The whole amount of written composition produced 
in America during the eighteenth century Avas very 
large, but passing by the great bulk of this material that 
lies beyond our province, we find that what remains is 
in comparison very meagre. After "The Sot-Weed 
Factor" of "Eben Cook, Gent.," in 1708, a long period 
elapses before any other record of Southern poetry 
appears. The establishment of two newspapers in Mary- 
land, of one in Yirginia, and of one in Georgia, before 
1765, must have brought forth some original verse, 
though how mucli and of what character it is not possi- 
ble to say. The l^evolution inspired many songs and 
ballads that were widely popular, but many of these 
have been lost, and of those that have come down to us 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 27 

the names of tlieir authors are frequently unknown. 
This is due, perhaps, to the fact that many of the songs 
were strongly partisan in spirit, and the authors natu- 
rally desired to conceal their identity. Under such cir- 
cumstances, then, the eighteenth century will not prove 
a particularly fruitful period. 

The earliest verse written in the South after 1700 
appears to be ^'The Sot- Weed Factor; or, A Yoyage to 
Maryland. A Satyr, in which is describ'd the Laws, 
Government, Courts and Constitutions of the Country, 
and also the Buildings, Feasts, F-rolics, Entertainments 
and Drunken Humours of the Inhabitants of that Part 
of America. In Burlesque Verse, by Eben Cook, Gent. 
London: Printed and sold by Dr. Bragg at the Haven 
in Paternoster Rotv, 1708. (Price, 6s.)" The volume 
is a quarto (i. e., the reprint in Shea's Early Southern' 
Tracts is), pp. vi., 26. "Sot-Weed" means the sot- 
making or inebriating weed, a name used at that time 
for tobacco. A '^Sot-Weed Factor" was a tobacco agent 
or supercargo. 

The author pretends to be an Englishman under doom 
of emigrating to America; after a three months' voyage 
he, with the others of the ship's company, arrives in 
Maryland; he brings on shore his goods to exchange for 
the much-desired '^sot-weed"; the "sot-weed factors," 
or tobacco agents, oddly dressed, swarm round him, and 
he wonders who they are ; he crosses the river, and after 
some trouble finds rough but cordial hospitality, which 
he describes in detail, not omitting his troubles with 
mosquitoes and so forth at night ; after breakfast he goes 



28 On Soufheni Poetry Prior lo 1860. 

on liis journey to a place called Ilattletown; on his way 
he meets an Indian, and they discn^ss the origin of In- 
dians; at last he reaches a place where court is in ses- 
sion and a multitude of people are assembled; the case 
on trial results in a general niclcc, in which judges, jury, 
clients, and spectators take a hand; he describes the 
events of the next night, his personal misadventures 
and various other experiences; he then thinks it time 
to sell his wares: 

" To this intent, with guide before, 
I tripped it to the Eastern Shore. 
While riding near a sandy bay, 
I met a Quaker, yea and nay; 
A pious, conscientious rogue. 
As e'er wore bonnet or a brogue; 
Who neither swore nor kept his word, 
But cheated in the fear of God; 
And when his debts he would not pay, 
By Light Within he ran away." 

After being thus swindled he goes to a lawyer, who 
is also a doctor, and is eventually cheated even worse 
than by the Quaker; at last, mad with rage, he leaves 
his curse upon the country and departs. 

Whether ^'Eben C'ook, Gent.," ever really existed or 
not is uncertain. The name may have been a pseu- 
donym, but if so the true name has been lost. Brantz 
Mayer says: "We may, I imagine, very reasonably sup- 
pose ^Eben Cook' to have been a London ^Gent.' rather 
decayed by fast living, sent abroad to see the world and 
])o tamed by it, who very soon discovered that Lord 
Baltimore's Colony was not the Court of Her Majesty, 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 29 

Queen Anne, or its taverns frequented by Addison and 
the wits, and whose disgust became supreme when he 
was 'finished' on the 'Eastern Shore' by 

*A pious, conscientious rogue,' 

who, taking advantage of his incapacity for trade, 
cheated him out of his cargo, and sent him home with- 
out a leaf of the coveted 'sot-weed.' '' 

We are left entirely to conjecture as to the real 
author. He was probably a frequenter of the court and 
familiar with the wits of Queen Anne's reigTi. The 
whole poem is a satire, as the title states, and though 
imaginary in details has more or less value in giving a 
picture of the manners and customs among the ruder 
classes of Maryland in the early eighteenth century. 
The rhymed couplet, as usual, is employed, and the 
author gives evidence of ease in composition, preserving 
a certain lightness of spirit throughout. Altogether, 
its place is not above contemporary English poems of a 
similar character. 

Twenty-two years afterwards a writer, professing to 
be. the same 'Eben Cook,' published at Annapolis an- 
other poem, "Sot- Weed Redivivus; or. The Planter's 
Looking-Glass, in burlesque verse^ calculated for the 
meridian of Maryland," a quarto of twenty-eight pages. 
"The first poem has, indeed, an abundance of filth and 
scurrility, but it has wit besides; the second poem lacks 
only the wit." 

Cf. Tyler, II., 255 sq.; Stockbridge, 64; S. & H., II., 
272, and XL, 495. 



30 On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

The Virginia Gazette^ May 2, 17 GO, printed the 
earliest soug by a Southern writer. It was called 
^'Hearts of Oak" from the first words of the chorus, and 
was doubtless an imitation of David Garrick's sailor 
song of the same title. It "breathes the strong feeling 
of the period, and is a premonition of the Revolution of 
a few years later. The rhythm is a little halting at 
times, and there are such rhymes as "isle" with '^soil," 
''storm" with ''firm," and "own" with "down," l)ut 
the author, whoever he was, probably judged that in 
actual singing these imperfections would not be no- 
ticed; he was writing for practical effect, and not to 
make perfect verse. "Hearts of Oak" were catch words 
for many other songs of the same general character 
written in the other colonies. In 1775 another "Hearts 
of Oak" called "Virginia Hearts of Oak" was produced 
in Virginia by one J. W. Hewlings. Of Hewlings we 
know nothing further. 

"Virginia Banishing Tea. By a Lady," was printed 
in the Pennsylvania Journal^ September 14, 1774. "A 
Lady" is indefinite, but she may have been a Virginian, 
and if so this is the first poem by a woman in the South 
so far observed. The verses catch the eye as the first 
noticed variation from the conventional rhymed coup- 
let, the new scheme being ab, ab, cd, cd, ef, ef, etc. 

Erom the Camp Near Germantown, October 30, 1777, 
was inscribed to Col. Thomas Clark, of the First North 
Carolina Battalion, by his friend and most obedient 
humble servant, Alex. Martin, a "Tribute to General 
Ti-ancis Nash." Gen. Nash was wounded October 3, 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 31 

and died Octob.er 7, 1777. Lieutenant-Colonel Alex- 
ander Martin, the anttior of the lines, at the close of 
the war became Governor of his native State of ITorth 
Carolina, and afterwards a senator of the United States. 
Col. Clark succeeded to !Nash's command. The stanzas 
impress one as being the work of a man unaccustomed 
to write poetry, but feeling that the occasion demanded 
something at his hands, he bethought him of other 
heroes who had fallen in the strife, of how heroes of 
old with their blood had raised mighty empires and so 
forth, and then indited the tribute to his superior officer 
in rhymed couplets. The poem as a whole is not bad, 
and does fair credit to Colonel Martin. Cf. Duyckinck, 
I, 452. 

Many loyalist ballads were written, particularly in 
the E"orthern colonies, and sometimes they were parodies 
on the popular revolutionary songs. Though rarer in 
the South, they were published there occasionally. 
One of the most notable examples was ^^A Familiar 
Epistle,'^ addressed to Kobert Wills, the printer of 
the Carolina Gazette, by a young loyalist of Charleston. 
As an index of the spirit- of the times he was thrown 
into jail for the crime of having written it! 

The following lines have a pungency about them that, 
turned in a different direction, might well have made 
their author a name: 

" Excuse me, dear Robert, I can't think it true, 
Though Solomon says it, that nothing is new. 
Had he lived in these times, we had rather been told 
Our West World's so new, it has nothing that's old. 
But should he insist in his own way to have it, 



32 On Soidhern Poetry Prior to 1S60. 

I would beg leave to ask of this wise son of David 
A few simple questions: as, where he e'er saw 
Men legally punished for not breaking the law? 
Tarr'd, fcather'd, and carted for drinking Bohea? — 
An'd by force and oppression compell'd to be free? — 
The same men maintaining that all human kind 
Are, have been, and shall be, as free as the wind, 
Yet impaling and burning their slaves for believing 
The truth of the lessons they're constantly giving?" 

For a full discussion of the Loyalist poetry in gen- 
eral, see Tyler's Revolution, II., 51 sq. 

Many other songs and ballads of tlie Revolution were 
doubtless published in the South, but most of them have 
been lost. 

Theodoric Bland (1742-1790) wrote some verses in 
celebration of the Battle of Lexington soon after that 
event, and took part in the Revolutionary struggle as a 
captain of Virginia cavalry. His manuscripts were 
partly destroyed, but the remnants were finally pub- 
lished in 1840-'43 by Charles Campbell under the 
title of '" The Bland Papers." The few stanzas of 
the poem alluded to that are accessible are insufficient 
as a basis for an opinion of the whole composition. 
Bland was by profession a i)hysician, and was educated 
in Great Britain, taking his ^1. 1). at Edinburgh. lie 
returned to Virginia in 1704 or '65 and practiced pro- 
bably until the outbreak of the Revolution. John Ran- 
dolph was his nepliew, and George AVashington was 
numbered among his friends. He was a nKMnl)er of 
Congress from 1770 to l7s:>. He was also elected to 
the new Congress, and in 17J)(), while in attendance; 
upon it in New York, he died, llis correspondence with 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 33 

the leading actors of the Revolution gave great histori- 
cal value to his MSS. Cf. Duyckinck, I., 236. 

In 1777 was written by James McClurg and St. 
George Tucker the somewhat famous poem called "The 
Belles of Williamsburg." The greater portion of the 
verses were by McClurg, "a few" having been supplied 
by Tucker, but we are not told just which make up the 
"few." Perhaps it is of no great importance, anyway. 
John Esten Cooke drew attention to "The Belles" by 
using a part of it in his "Virginia Comedians." It be- 
longs to the class of poetry known as vers de societe, but 
does not seem to possess any extraordinary qualities not 
usually found in poetry of that kind. Williamsburg 
was a gTcat social centre in those days, and it is not re- 
markable that the belles should have inspired two bright 
young men to write sixteen six-line stanzas about their 
charms. Classical allusions, pastoral names, and the 
effusive expressions in general point to the English 
writers of the earlier half of the century as models. The 
stanzas read well, though some of the rhymes are rather 
strained — e. g., in the first stanza: 

" Wilt thou, advent'rous pen, describe 
The gay, delightful, silken tribe, 

That maddens all our city; 
Nor dread, lest while you foolish claim 
A near approach to beauty's flame, 

Icarus' fate may hit ye?" 

A dozen similar stanzas make up the "Sequel to the 
Belles of Williamsburg," which is of about the same 
character and supposably by the same authors as the 
preceding poem, 
5 



34 On Southern Pociry Prior to ISGO. 

James McClurg (1747-1825) was lx)rn at Hampton, 
Va. AVas a fellow-student Avith Thomas Jefferson at 
AVilliam and Marv College. Took his ^F. D. at Edin- 
burgh, and studied at London and Paris. Returned to 
America 1772 or '78 and practiced at Williamsburg. 
He wrote papers on medical subjects. He is remembered 
here for his vers de societc mentioned above. 

For other particulars of his life, see Appleton; also 
Duyckinck, I., 283. 

St. George Tucker. Cf. page 35. 

Joseph Brown Ladd (1764-1786). Born at Xewport, 
R. I. Educated for a physician. Settled at Charleston, 
S. C, in 1783. Was killed in a duel as a result of a 
newspaper controversy. 

The Poems of Arouet (Charleston, 1786) were in- 
spired by his sweetheart, Amanda, to Avhom, however, 
he was not married. The poet is said to have been un- 
usually precocious and to have written verses at ten 
years of age. The specimens of the Arouet poems at 
hand express strongly the sentiment of love and show 
considerable skill in versification. The rhymed couplet 
obtains. 

His Literary Remains were collected by his sister, 
Mrs. Elizabeth Ilaskins, and ]:)ublished with a life by 
W. B. Chittenden (New York, 1832). 

Cf. Duyck., I., 515; S. & H., HI., 506; Appleton, 
in., 585; Stockbridge, 139. 

Buds of Beauty, by A. ( 'Uatterton, was published at 
Baltimore, 1787. iSTo further record of Chattcrton's 
life or work has been found. 



071 Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 35 

Judge St. George Tucker (1752-1827), born in the 
Bermuda Islands, was known widely as a jurist and 
writer on legal and political subjects. He had some 
claim to being a poet also, and has already been referred 
to above. (Cf. James McOlnrg.) 

The three fugitive stanzas called "Days of My 
Youth""^" are full of the reflections of an old man, and 
contain much wise philosophy. 

The Probationary Odes of Jonathan Pinda^r, Esq. 
(Philadelphia, 1796), were modelled on Dr. Wolcott's 
"Peter Pindar " satires on George III. Their object 
was "to assail John Adams and other leading federalists 
for their supposed monarchical predilections." They 
"might well be compared with Wolcott's for poetical 
qualities, but were less playful and had far more acer- 
bity." 

There are two parts — Part I., pp. 9-46; Part II., pp. 
53-103. Pages 51-52 contain an amusing letter from 
a landlord signed "Timothy Touchpenny," in which he 
relates the circumstances under which Part II. came 
into his possession. — Stoclcbridge. 

For biographical details and bibliography of prose, 
see Duyckinck, I., 236; Allibone, III., 2465; Appleton, 
VI., 174; Stockbridge, 289. 

Colonel Robert Munford, an oflicer in the American 
Revolutionary army, wrote two political dramas — The 

* "This little song is said to have produced so great an im- 
pression on John Adams in his old age that he declared he 
'would rather have written it than any lyric of Milton or 
Shakespeare.' " — Jolin Esten Cooke, Yirgitiia, 495. 



36 On Soidhern Poetry Prior to ISGO. 

Candidates and The Patriots — which, with several 
minor poems, were published by his son William {cf. 
infra) at Petersburg, Ya., in 1798. The collection 
was also jniblished at Kichmond the same year. 

Of Col. Miinford's life and Avork little record has 
been found. Cf. Allibone, II., 1386; Appleton, IV., 
459. 

The eighteenth century marks some advance over the 
seventeenth as regards both the number of verse-writers 
in the South and the character of the vei*ses. It is true 
that no large amount was produced, but what was pro- 
duced shows that while the people did not give much 
time to writing poetry, they could nevertheless write 
acceptably when they so desired. The satires, the song's 
and ballads, the lyrics, the vers de societe, all give evi- 
dence of polish that was too often concealed in the busy 
affairs of practical every-day life. Two hundred years 
had given time for thing's to get fairly well settled, so 
far as protection from the Indians and the permanent 
establishment of the colonies were concerned. But meii 
were still occupied with matters of physical welfare; 
with the management of their estates, with politics, with 
war. Education was backward; life was passed mainly 
on large, isolated plantations; literary centres were 
wanting. T'he result was, naturally, that the muses 
were wooed spasmodically, and generally not at all. 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 37 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

The first six decades of tlie nineteenth century were 
more fruitful in American literature than both the two 
preceding centuries together. Indeed, this period marks 
the rise of the real American literature. Applied more 
narrowly, the same statement is true of Southern po- 
etry. If the amount of verse produced in the South 
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was 
small, the amount produced in this period of the nine- 
teenth is relatively large. A tentative list shows 219 
writers of verse, and were it possible to make the enu- 
meration complete the whole number would probably 
be at least 275. Many of the titles in this list, however, 
are titles and but little more, as no details of the authors 
could be found, even when their names were not con- 
cealed by anonymity. In such cases the place of publi- 
cation has been usually taken as the test for determining 
wdiether or not the title should be included as the work 
of a Southern author. It is true that this test is not 
infallible; there are some exceptions. But let it be 
remembered that in the absence of other evidence to 
the contrary, there is a right to the benefit of the doubt, 
and that the publication of a book in a Southern city 
implies a Southern author much oftener than an author 
from some other section. 

It will be noted that the titles indicate many different 
species of poetry : dramas, pastorals, hymns, songs, fairy 
tales, lyrics, translations, and other forms. Satires in 
verse were frequent and the drama was a favorite form. 



:3."^ On Southern Poetry Prior to 18G0. 

About one-fourth of tlic ^vholc are anonymous. Balti- 
luore, Charleston, and Kichmond were the leading pub- 
lishing centres, Baltimore publishing more than both 
the others and Kichmond appearing to gain in favor in 
the later decades. In addftion to these centres local 
publishing houses were patronized. 

The greater part of the poetry represented on tliis 
list was probably the work of minor poets of merely 
local re])utation and of small value as literature, so 
there is little reason to grieve over its loss or inaccessi- 
bility. But among the crowd of names there are a few 
of national, and at least one of international, promi- 
nence. While these demand and are worthy of careful 
consideration, it is not our plan to make an exhaustive 
study of them, for they have already been specially 
treated by many far more competent hands than ours. 
Our main effort shall be to throw as much light as pos- 
sible on such of the lesser men as w^e have been able to' 
secure any information about, dealing with the better 
known poets like Poe, Timrod, and Ilayne only in a 
general way. 

The decade ending 1810 saw the publication of G. H. 
Spierin's Poems, Mason L. AVeems's Hymen's Recruit- 
ing Sergeant (Philadelphia, 1805), Isaac ITarby's A 
Oordian Knot, J. Burk's Bethlem Gabor, and Bunker 
Hill, T. Xorthmore's Washington (in ten books). Dr. 
John Shaw's Poems, and other Avorks. 

Trent (p. 50) mentions Spierin as a (Miarlestonian, 
wdio had written a prize poem and who had died at six- 
teen. No other details of his brief career are available. 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 39 

Mason L. Weems {circa 1760-1825). Born at Dum- 
fries, Ya. Kector at Mount Yernon before the Kevolu- 
tion. He travelled widely over the country as a preacher 
and book asrent, but is best known as the author of a 
Life of Washington (first edition, 1800). He also wrote 
biographies of Gen. Francis Mafion, William Penn, and 
Benjamin Franklin, and tried his prolific pen at other 
kinds of writing. ''Mr. Weems was certainly the most 
popular biographer of his day; he has never been es- 
teemed the most veracious." — Allihone. He died at 
Beaufort, S. C. 

Hymen^s Recruiting Sergeant; or, The Matrimonial 
Tat-Too for the Old Boxhelors (Philadelphia, 1805) was 
probably intended as a satirical fun-maker for the peo- 
ple. That it had not much merit may be reasonably 
concluded from the general character of the author's 
other writings. 

For details biographical and bibliographical as to 
prose works, see AUibone, III., 2633; Duyckinck, I., 
484. 

Isaac Hasby (1788-1828). Born in Charleston, S. C, 
of Jewish descent. Was educated under Dr. Best, a 
celebrated teacher of the time. Abandoned the study 
of law and became a journalist, editing The Quiver and 
The Southern Patriot. As a dramatic critic he became 
widely and favorably known. In 1807 his play, The 
Gordian Knot, or Causes and Effects, was produced at 
the Charleston Theatre, V\^here a previous play of his, 
Alexander Severus, had been declined. The Gordian 
Knot had only a short run, but better success attended 



40 On Southern Poclry Prior to ISGO. 

Albciil when it appeared in 1819. Most of his news- 
paper work was probably of current interest only. In 
1828 he moved to New York city and became a con- 
tributor to The Evening Post and other papei*s, but died 
the same year. 

Alherti is founded on the history of Lorenzo de 
Medici, and designed to vindicate his conduct from 
''^the calumnies of Alfieri in his tragedy called The Con- 
spiracy of Pazzi." The drama is said to be animated in 
action and smooth in versification. 

A selection from his miscellaneous writings by Heniy 
L. Pin(dvney and Abraham Moise was published in 
Charleston in 1829. 

For other details, see Duyckinck, IL, 100. 

Dr. John Shaw (1778-1809). Born at Annapolis, 
Md. Attended St. John's College; studied medicine 
and obtained a surgeon's appointment in the fleet or- 
dered to Algiers in 1798. He remained a short time at 
Tunis, and was sent by Gen. Eaton to London on diplo- 
matic business, returning home by way of Lisbon in 
1800. The next year he pureued his medical studies at 
Edinburgh, and there met the Earl of Selkirk, with 
whom he sailed in 1803 for C-anada, wdiere the noble- 
man was founding a settlement on St. John Island, 
Lake St. Clair. He returned home in 1805, married, 
and settled in Baltimore in 1807. His death occurred 
during a voyage from Charleston to the Bahamas in 
1809. 

Poems by the Late Dr. John Shaw, ivith a Biographi- 
cal Sketch, was published at Philadelphia in 1810. Of 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 41 

tliese Griswold quotes a ^^Song" of three six-line stanzas 
and Duyckinck ^^A Sleighing Song" of four six-line 
stanzas. ^N^either is of special merit, though they show 
some skill in verse form. The poems ^^are on the usual 
topics of fugitive verse of the average order of excel- 
lence." 

Cf. Griswold, 535; Duyckinck, I., 656; Allibone, II., 
2061. 

The first poet of the second decade appears to have 
been William Maxwell (1784-1857). Born at ^NTorfolk, 
Ya. Graduated from Yale in 1802. Studied law in 
Richmond and admitted to practice at ISTorfolk, 1808. 
Attained eminence as a constitutional lawyer. Edited 
literary department of Neiu York Journal of Commerce 
in 1827. Served in the Yirginia Legislature 1830 and 
State Senate 1832-'38. President of Hampden-Sidney 
College from N'ovember, 1838 to 1844. Moved to Rich- 
mond and engaged in reviving the Yirginia Historical 
and Philosophical Society. In 1848 he established the 
Virginia Historical Fegister, of which he edited six 
volumes (1 848-' 5 3). Was a member of the Bible and 
Colonization Societies. Was active in the cause of edu- 
cation, and in 1828 erected at his own expense in I^or- 
folk, Ya., a lyceum for the diffusion of useful knowledge 
by means of lectures and scientific experiments. He 
was honored with the degree of LL.D. from Hampden- 
Sidney College. Died near Williamsburg, Ya. 

He published a volume of Poems in 1812 (24°, pp. 
144, Philadelphia), a second (?) edition of which ap- 



42 On Southern Poetrjj Prior fo 1860. 

peared in 1816 (18°, pp. 168, Philadelphia). From 
these no quotations have been found. 

Cf. Appleton, IV., 272; S. & IL, V., 83, and XL, 
553; Blackwood's, XVIL, 189. 

RiciiA]{D Dabney (1787-1825) published at Richmond 
in 1812 Poems, Original and Translated, which, 
^^thou2,"h of some merit, mortifvine'lv failed with the 
public." Three years later the revised and improved 
edition aj^ipeared at Philadelphia, but this also failed to 
meet with success. "Yet," says Duyckinck (who credits 
the sketch of Dabney in the "Cyclopaedia" to Lucian 
Minor, Esq., of Louisa county, Ya.), "it had pieces re- 
markable for striking and vigorous thought, and the 
diversity of translation (from Grecian, Latin, and 
Italian poets) evinced a ripeness of scholarship and cor- 
rectness of taste. In the mechanical parts of poetry — in 
rhythm and in rhymes — he was least exact. JSTearly half 
the volume consisted of translations." The three selec- 
tions in Duyckinck — Youth and Age, The Tribute (to 
Col. Carrington), and An Epigram, Imitated from 
Archias — seem to possess no particular merit. The 
rhymed couplet is used in the firet two and alternate 
rhyme in the last. Several of the rhymes are imperfect. 
Much of the failure no doubt is to be attributed to the 
fact that he was "least exact" in the "mechanical part-s 
of poetry." 

Richard Dabney was born in 1787, a native of Louisa 
county, Ya. His father, Samuel Dabney, was a wealthy 
farmer and planter, with twelve children. Xone of 
these was regularly or thoroughly educated. Richard 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 43 

was instructed only in the rudiments of knowledge until 
lie was sixteen or eighteen, when he went to a school of 
Latin and Greek and distingaiished himself as a bright 
student of languages. Afterwards he was an assistant 
teacher in a Richmond school. About 1815 he went to 
Philadelphia to pursue some literary career, but after a 
few years returned to his widowed mother's farm, and 
there spent the rest of his life. He fell into habits of 
intemperance, and died prematurely in 1825 at the age 
of thirty-eight. 

Of. Duyckinck, II., 98; AUibone, I., 464; S. & H., 
IV., 501, and XI., 499. 

Washington Allston (1Y79-1843) was a native of 
South Carolina — Charleston (Duyckinck) or George- 
town (AUibone). At a very early age he was sent to 
IsTewport, Rhode Island, to be prepared for Harvard 
College, which he entered in 1Y96. During his stay at 
I^ewport he had met the artist Malbone, and this is sup- 
posed to have influenced him in the choice of art as a 
profession. On completing his course at Harvard he 
returned to South Carolina, sold his estate, and in com- 
pany with Malbone went abroad to pursue his art studies 
in London, Paris, and Italy. Lie remained away eight 
years, meeting many famous men, among them Cole- 
ridge, with whom he formed a lasting friendship. He 
returned to America in 1809, and soon afterwards was 
married to a sister of Dr. Channing. In 1811 he again 
went abroad. He made a great reputation as a painter, 
and his paintings were exhibited at the leading institu- 
tions of art. As an evidence of the esteem in which he 



44 On Soidhern Poetry Prior lo 1^00. 

was lield, lie was elected an associate of the Euglisli 
Koyal Academy. In 1810 he again returned to America 
and took up his residence at ]3oston. His first wife had 
died in 1813, so in 1830 he married a sister of Kichard 
II. Dana, and resided the remainder of his life at Cam- 
bridgeport, near Boston. He died suddenly in 1843. 

During his second residence abroad Allston published 
a volume called Sylphs of the Seasons and Other Poems 
(London, 1813). These appear to have been highly 
valued by his contemporaries, a fact due largely, per- 
haps, to his prominence as a painter. For a modern 
reader they have little attraction. Griswold was evi-. 
dently a staunch admirer of the painter, for he dedicated 
to him ^'The Poets and Poetry of America," and devoted 
nine pages to his poetry. If we may judge from these 
selections his poetry cannot take a very high rank. 

^'Tlie Paint King" is a serio-comic, imaginative-fanci-. 
ful extravaganza that can hardly be called poetry at all. 
Why it is included in an anthology supposed to repre- 
sent each author's best is difficult to see. The language 
is unpoetical, the imagery is crude, absurdities are not 
wanting, and imagination runs riot. 

" Up and down would she go, like the sails of a mill, 
And pat every stair, like a icooclpcckcr's hill." 

***** "And, clasping, he froze 
The blood of the maid with his flame!" 

" Then, seizing the maid by her dark auburn hair. 
An oil jug he plunged her within; 
Seven days, seven nights, with the shrieks of despair, 
Did Ellen in torment convulse the dun air. 
All covered with oil to the chin. 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 45 

" On the morn of the eighth, on a huge sable stone 

Then Ellen all reeking he laid, 
With a rock for his muller he crushed every bone, 
But, though ground to jelly, still, still, did she groan, 

For life had forsook not the maid." — (Sic!) 

The general tone of this piece was no doubt intended 
to be ludicrous and extravagant, but the poet asks the 
reader to go too far. 

"The Sylphs of the Seasons" extends over sixty-nine 
seven-line stanzas, and is his longest poem (Griswold). 
The poet dreams that he enters a splendid castle, and is 
welcomed as lord by four damsels — the Sylphs of Spring, 
Summer, Autumn, and Winter — ^who recount the 
charms of those seasons. This poem is a serious effort, 
and shows talent in verse-making, but w^hether the talent 
at any point reaches genius is questionable. The effects 
of the painter's nature studies are manifest. 

Of the other poems quoted the best are "America to 
Great Britain,'' "Rosalie," and the sonnet, "On the 
Death of Coleridge," the last, perhaps, occupying the 
highest place of all quoted in Grisw^old. Along with 
this should be mentioned "A Fragment," which is 
strongly suggestive of Wordsw^orth, and is one of the 
best of Allston's efforts that we have found. 

" Wise is the face of Nature unto him 
Whose hearty amid the business and the cares. 
The cunning and bad passions of the world. 
Still keeps its freshness, and can look upon her 

' As when she breathed upon his school-boy face 
Her morning breath, from o'er the dewy beds 
Of infant violets waking to the sun; 
When the young spirit, only recipient. 
So drank in her beauties that his heart 
Would reel within him, joining jubilant 
The dance of brooks and waving woods and flowers." 



4C) On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

Besides the vohniie named and many short poems, 
Allston was the author of "Monaldi," a romance, and a 
series of lectures on art. 

For further details, see Griswold, 73 sq. ; Duyckinck, 
IL, 12; Allibone, L, 56; S. '& II., IV., 427; Allston's 
Lectures on Art, and Poems, edited by R. H. Dana, Jr. 
(New York, 1850.) Willmott, 164. 

The second decade of the century is marked certainly 
hy one Southern poem of national fame. ^^The Star- 
Spangled Banner" of Francis Scott Key is too Avell 
known to need extended comment here. Its popularity 
and excellence are proved by its adoption as one of the 
favorite national songs. In strict literary merit it may 
not rank high, but it undoubtedly has the power to stir 
the depths of our love for country, a test that must 
measure the quality of every patriotic poem. The song 
was composed in 1814 under the following circum-. 
stances : 

A gentleman had left Baltimore, with a flag of truce, 
for the purpose of getting released from the British fleet 
a friend of his, who had been captured at Marlborough. 
He went as far as the mouth of the Patuxent, and was 
not permitted to return, lest the intended attack on Bal- 
timore should be disclosed, lie was therefore brought 
up the bay to the mouth of the Patapsco, where the flag 
vessel was kept under the guns of a frigate; and he was 
compelled to witness the bombardment of Fort Mc- 
Henry, which the admiral had boasted he would carry 
ill a few hours, and that the city must fall. He watched 
the flag at tlie fort tlirough the whole day, with an 
anxiety that can lie bettor felt tlian described^ until the 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 47 

niglit prevented liim from seeing it. In the niglit he 
watched the bomb-shells, and at early dawn his eye was 
aeain greeted by the flag of his conntry. — McCarty^s 
National 8o7igs, III., 225. — Duyck., I., 663. See, also, 
Stockbridge, 277. 

These experiences resulted in the immediate compo- 
sition of ^^The Star-Spangied Banner." It was at once 
printed and was sung, to the air of "Anacreon in 
Heaven," throughout the country. 

Francis Scott Key (1779-1843) was born in Fred- 
erick county, Maryland. John Ross Key, his father, was 
an officer in the Kevolutionary army, and a descendant 
of some of the earliest settlers in the pro^dnce. After 
completing his course at St. John's College, Annapolis, 
Francis Scott Key studied law with his uncle, Philip 
Barton Key, and began practice in Frederick, Maryland, 
in 1801. Some years later he moved to Washington, 
where he became District Attorney of the city, and 
there remained until his death. 

Key's poems were composed, it seems, just as the in- 
spiration came to him, and were noted down on odd 
scraps of paper, backs of letters, etc. They were seldom 
revised by the author, not being intended for publica- 
tion. An edition of them appeared posthumously in 
1867. 

Duyckinck quotes, in addition to The Star-Spangled 
Banner, a '^Song written on the return of Commodore 
Decatur" and a ^^Hymn for the Fourth of July." Both 
are patriotic in character, the first being in the same 



48 On Southern Poetry Prior to ISGO. 

meter and rhyiiie-sclieme as The Star-Spangled Banner, 
but neitlier eqnals it in poetic quality. 
Cf. Dnyckinek, I., 663; also Appleton. 

Edwin V. Holland (1794-1824), a lawyer of diarles- 
ton, S. C, published Odes, Naval Songs, and Other 
Poems in 1814. They had been suggested mainly by 
the war with England, and published previously in the 
Philadelphia Port-Folio. ^'The Pillar of Glory" was a 
prize poem, but under what conditions the prize was 
given we do not know. It has a good deal of s])irit and 
patriotism and is avcII adapted for singing. Otherwise 
its poetical qualities are not remarkable. 

Cf. Duyckinck, II., 139. 

John M. Harney (1789-1823) was born in Sussex 
county, Delaware, but settled at Bardstown, Kentucky, 
and subsequently at SaA^anriah, Georgia, removing again 
finally to Bardstown, Avhere he died. 

In 1816 he published anonymously Crystalina: A 
Fairy Tale in Six Cantos (New York). It was com- 
mended highly by John l^eal in The Portico, a monthly 
of Baltimore. Some of his poems were published post- 
humously, the best of Avhich is said to be ^^Tlie Ecver 
Dream." A short poem in rhymed couplets ^^On a 
Friend" is given in Griswold, 542. 

AViLLiAM Ckafts (1 787-1 826) was a native of ( liarles- 
ton. South Carolina. He had the advantage of a course 
at Harvard College, where he seems to have made some 
reputation among his fellows for his wit and sociability. 
Ileturning to Charleston, he studied law, was admitted 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 49 

to tlie bar, and was subsoquently several times elected 
to the State Legislature. He was a ready speaker, and 
w^as called on to deliver orations on various public occa- 
sions. In 1817 be delivered the Phi Beta Kappa address 
at Harvard. 

His poems are few and brief. ^^SuUivan's Island" 
(1820) is a description of tliat ocean retreat. ^^The 
Eaciad'' celebrates tlie famous Charleston races.* The 
^^Monody on the Death of Decatur'' was written imme- 
diately after the receipt of the news of that commander's 
death, and was published the following day. It is eulo- 
gistic of its hero and gives some account of his exploits, 
but has little poetic value. The verse form is the rhymed 
couplet. ^^The Sea Serpent, or Gloucester Hoax," is a 
jeu d'' esprit in three acts, which appeared in 1819. 

For a time Crafts was editor of The Charleston Cou- 
rier. He seems to have been a literary dictator at 
Charleston for many years, but most of his work has 
been forgotten. An effort was made to perpetuate his 
memory by " A Selection, in Prose and Poetry, from the 
Miscellaneous Writings of the late William Crafts, to 
which is prefixed a Memoir of his Life." (Charleston, 
1828.) 

Cf. Duyckinck, IL, 86; Allibone, L, 445; Trent, 26, 
et passim. 

James Weight Simmons was born in South Carolina, 
studied at Harvard, travelled in Europe, and after- 
wards settled in the West. In 1821 he published The 
Maniac^ s Confession (Philadelphia); in 1822, Blue 

*See Trent's Simms, p. 26, 
7 



50 On Southern Fociry Prior to 1S60. 

Beard; or. The Marsh at of France (Philadclpliia), and 
The Fxit&s Beturn, etc. (Philadelphia.) In 1852 ap- 
peared The Greek Girt (Boston). Besides these Mr. 
Simmons wrote a series of metrical tales called Wood- 
notes from the ^yest, which were as late as 1855 still in 
manuscript. The short quotations given in Duyckinck 
are too meagre to base an estimate of his poetry upon. 
Of. Duyckinck, II., 558. Cf. Trent, p. 53. 

Jonx K. Mitchell (1798-1858), a physician of Phila- 
del])hia, was born of Scotch parentage in Shepardstown, 
Virginia. Educated in Scotland, he returned and studied 
medicine at Philadelphia. In 1841 he was chosen Pro- 
fessor of the Practice of Medicine in Jefferson Medical 
College. 

He wrote many articles on medical subjects and sev- 
eral poems. St. ITetena^ hy a Yankee (1821); Indecision, 
a Tale of the Far West, and Other Poems (1839), include' 
the bulk, if, indeed, not all, of the verse produced by 
him. 

"The Brilliant Xor' West" is an apostrophe to the 

wind, and with ''The Song of the Prairie" shows a love 

for nature and the author's native land. His practice in 

writing gave him a good command of words, so that 

these verses possess considerable soothness and rapidity 

of movement. Another little poem of four stanzas, 

''The New Song and the Old Song," has a true lyric 

ring. The last lines arc: 

" Oh, the old song — the old song! 
The song of the days of glee, 
The new song may be better sung. 
But the good old song for me!" 



On Southern Poehy Prior to 1860. 51 

For a somewhat detailed biography and bibliography 
of his professional works, cf. Allibone, II., 1337; also, 
cf. Dnyckinck, II., 381, and Griswold, 530. 

Akmistead Burt (1802-1883), born in Edgefield Dis- 
trict, South Carolina; died at Abbeville, South Caro- 
lina. Speaker House of Representatives 1848. 

The Coronation; or, Hypocrisy Exposed. Also, 8ul- 
livan^s Island, with Notes. Charleston, 1822. 

Journeyman Weaving. E^ew York, 1831. 

^'The following verses,^' says the author, ^'are founded 
on the supposition of some attempts having been made 
by the journeymen cotton weavers here to arrest the 
further reduction of their wages, and are supposed to 
be the substance of the several speeches likely to be de- 
livered at the various meetings held on the subject." — 
Stockbridge. 

Poems, Chiefly Satirical. 'New York, 1833. 

Edward Coate Pinkney (1802-1828) vv^as born in 
London while his father, William Pinkney, was minister 
of the United States to England. The family returned to 
Baltimore in 1811, and soon afterwards Edward was 
placed at school in St. Mary's College, where he re- 
mained until appointed at fourteen a midshipman in 
the navy. He served six years and then resigTied on 
account of a quarrel with Commodore Ridgely, his supe- 
rior officer. After leaving the navy he studied law and 
Tvas admitted to the bar in 1824 at Baltimore. He was 
practically a "briefless barrister," for very few clients 
entrusted him with their business. It is said that the 



52 On Southern Poetry Prior to ISGO. 

erroneous notion prevailed that a poet conld not be a 
good lawyer, and as Pinkney was known to be a man of 
poetic temperament lie did not secure the practice tliat 
a man of much less brilliancy would probably have done 
in similar circumstances, lie accordingly gave up the 
law and embarked for Mexico with the intention of join- 
ing the patriots, who were fighting for the independence 
of their country. Failing, however, to secure the posi- 
tion sought in the Mexican navy, and becoming involved 
in an unfortunate duel with a Mexican, in Avhicli he 
killed his opponent, lie returned to Baltimore, disa]> 
pointed, discouraged, and dejected. A second attempt 
at law was even more futile than the first, but his abili- 
ties were recognized by his honorary appointment as 
Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the Univer- 
sity of Maryland, a post to which no salary was attached. 
In December, 1827, he was chosen editor of The Mary-' 
lander, a political newspaper that had been established 
in the interest of John (Juincy Adams, at that time 
President of the United States. A few months later 
Pinkney 's health failed, and in the spring of 1828 he 
breathed his last. 

In 1825 Pinkney published at Baltimore a volume of 
Poems (12mo., pp. 70), containing "Rodolph, a Frag- 
ment/' and a number of minor poems, ("liodolplr ' had 
been ])r('vi()usly printe<l, but without the author's name.) 
They were written between his twentietli and twent}'- 
second year. Extracts from them were circulated 
throughout the United States, and established liis repu- 
tation. ^'As an evidence of the estimation in which lie 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 53 

was held, it is sufficient to mention tliat when it was 
determined to publish biographical sketches of the five 
greatest poets of the country, with their portraits, 
Edward Pinkney was requested to sit for his miniature 
to be used in the proposed volume." A second edition 
of the poems appeared in 1838, and in 1844 they were 
again published, with an introduction by N. P. Willis, 
in the series of the Mirror Library, called The Rococo. 

^'Rodolph, a Fragment'' (two cantos), is the longest 
of the poems. It is a sketch of a life of passion and 
remorse. The hero, in his youth, had loved the wife of 
another, and his love had been returned. ''At an un- 
timely tide" he had met the husband and slain him. 
The wife retires to a convent, where she soon dies, and 
her paramour seeks refuge from remorse in distant 
countries. Finally, he returns to his ancestral castle. 
Feeling a dark presentiment, he wanders to a cemetery, 
and is found the next morning by his vassals, ''senseless 
beside his lady's urn." In his delirium he raves of 
many crimes, and at last dies in madness. 

This piece is lacking in finish and polish. The verse 
form is uncertain. Rhymed couplets, alternate rhyme, 
and blank verse are used together, it would seem, almost 
indiscriminately. The lines possess a certain vigor of 
expression, but they are not that kind that the reader 
likes to linger over and read and re-read again. In some 
respects they are slightly suggestive of Byron. 

The other poems are all short. Some of them, nota- 
bly "A Health" (praised by Edgar Allan Poe), "A Pic- 
ture Song," and the "Serenade" beginning "Look out 



54 Oil Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

upon tlie stars, my love," show a lightness of touch and 
(lelicacv of treatment that was at this time unusual in 
American poetrv. "The Indian's Bride," "Italy," and 
the love songs, with those just mentioned, evidence his 
metrical skill, which is, we think, more varied than that 
of any previous Southern poet. 

The amount of poetry that Pinkney wrote was no_t 
large, but when we remember the shortness of his life, 
with its over-full measure of sorrows, and the quality of 
what he produced, there can be no question of his genius, 
misdirected though it may have been. Like so many 
another poet, he was not fitted for practical affairs, and 
he died prematurely. Yet the slender volume of verse 
that he gave to the world has been sufficient to preserve 
his name as one of the most promising of the early 
American poets. 

For several pages of selections from his poetry, see 
Griswold; also, Duyckinck, IL, 338; AUibone, II., 1599; 
Appleton, v., 26;' S. & H., VI., 99; The Prose and 
Poetry of Europe and America, edited by N. P. AVillis 
and (Jeorge P. Morris, 585 sq. 

Lemukl Saw^yer (1777-1852), of Xorth Carolina. 

BJaMeard. A Comedy. AVashington, 1824. 

Tlie Wrech of Honor. A Tragedy. Xew York. 

(Date torn off.) 
Autohiograj)]iy, 1844. 
Biography of John Pidndolph. Xew York, 1844. 

Altjeut a. Mullet? {circa 1800 ) was born in 

Charleston, S. C. ^'Ile was educated in his native city. 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860 o 55 

entered the ministry, and after 1825 went to the South- 
west, where all traces of him have been lost. One of 
his poems was ^ largely (widely?) copied in the news- 
papers, and appeared as the first piece in the early 
American editions of Moore's ^ Sacred Melodies.' He 
published a volume of poems, Avhich attracted much at- 
tention (Charleston, 1825)." Appleton, lY., 458. 

William Gilmoee Simms (1806-1870) was born and 
reared in Charleston, .South Carolina. Received little 
education; was apprenticed to a druggist, but after his 
apprenticeship was over studied law ; visited his father in 
the Southwest and gained valuable knowledge of fron- 
tier life, which he afterwards utilized to great advantage 
in his writings; returned to Charleston; published first 
poetry in 1825; married first time in 1826; admitted to 
the bar in 1827; became editor of '^The Tablet" (which 
soon failed), and later of the ^^City Gazette"; opposed 
nullification and had adventure with a mob ; gave up 
newspaper work and made second visit to the Southwest ; 
returned again; published ^^Atalantis" ; entered field of 
fiction, and became a successful romancer; took part in 
politics; published many novels, poems, histories, biog- 
raphies, reviews, etc., and was recognized as the repre- 
sentative literary man of the South, at that time; died 
and was buried in Charleston.* 

Beginning in 1825, Simms continued to publish 
poetry at intervals until 1860. 

The first was a Monody on General Charles Cotes- 
worth Pinckney, of South Carolina, who had died in 

*For detailed life, see Trent's Simms (American Men of Letters). 



5C On Southern Foeirij Prior (o ISOO. 

An^'iist, 1825. It was written in tlic heroic couplet and 
aj)peared anonynionsly in the Charleston Courier Sep- 
tember 14, 1825. That it was favorably received by 
the more exclusive literary connoisseurs of Charleston 
is improbable, for Simms was not of patrician birth, 
was not in touch with them socially, and therefore was 
not ex})ected to produce anything of value. Xo copy 
of the poem is known to have survived. 

Lyrical and Other Poems (Charleston, 1827) was a 
collection written for the most part before his nine- 
teenth year. The prevailing tone was Bj^ronic. A com- 
monplaceness l>oth of matter and style neutralized the 
facility and correctness of the verses. (Trent.) 

Early Lays (Charleston, 1827), which followed at 
the end of the year, was also pervaded by a strongly 
Byronic tone. The Spenserian stanza was employed to 
a certain extent, and the Indians were made the subject 
of "The Last of the Yemassees,'' a fact which indicates 
Simms's increasing interest in a field that he was after- 
wards to work so well. 

Wordsworthian influence is shown in Tlie Vision of 
Cortes, Cain, and Other Poems (Charleston, 1829). It 
contained "The Lost Pleiad" (cf. Griswold, 327), which 
is said to be the one poem by Sinnns that has approached 
j)opularity. 

The following year another ]>yronic volume was pub- 
lislicd— 7V/e Tri-Color; or, The Three Days of Blood in 
Paris, with Some Other Pieces (Cliarleston, 1830). This 
was a striking evidence of the author's democratic ten- 
dencies. 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 57 

Two years later came Atalantis: A Story of the Sea. 
In Three Parts. (New York, 1832.) Anonymous. 
"Atalantis, a beautiful and virtuous princess of the 
JSTereids, is alternately flattered and threatened by a 
monster into whose power she has fallen by straying on 
the ocean beyond her domain, and becoming subject to 
his magical spells. She recovers her freedom by the 
aid of a shipwrecked Spanish knifirht, whose earthly 
nature enables him to penetrate the gross atmosphere of 
the island which the demon had extemporized for her 
habitation. The prison disappears, and the happy pair 
descend to the caves of ocean.'' Dramatic form and 
blank verse, which is exceptionally good, are employed. 
The poet's imagination has full play, and a considerable 
portion of the eighty pages is Avell sustained, there being 
much beautiful imagery and fine description. The 
choruses interspersed throughout the story are sugges- 
tive of Byron, as much of Simms's previous work had 
been. But after making full allowance for deficiencies 
of various kinds, the poem had many elements of real 
strength, a fact recognized both at home and abroad. 

Seven years passed before the next volume appeared — 
Southern Passages and Pictures (New York, 1839), a 
collection of poems written between 1832 and 1838. 
They are lyrical, sentimental, and descriptive, composed 
in many different meters. In 1840 he contributed a 
series of poems to the Southern Literary Messenger 
called "Early Lays" — not to be confused with the 1827 
volume of the same name. 

The decade ending 1850 was the most productive of 
8 



58 On Southern Poetry Prior to 1S60. 

poetry of Simms's whole career. Besides writing ex- 
tensively in other fields — romances, histories, biogra- 
phies, reviews, and miscellaneous articles — he put forth 
in eight years no less than seven volumes of serious 
vei*se and one lengthy satire of local interest. Donna 
Florida: A Tale, an avowed imitation of Byron, in 
which Ponce de Leon takes the place of Don Juan, came 
in 1843; Grouped Tlioucjlits and Scattered Fancies: A 
Collection of Sonnets, in 1845; Areytos, or Songs of the 
South, mainly juvenile love lyrics, in 1846. Two 
years later (1848) he brought out Lays of the Palmetto, 
a patriotic tribute to the valor of the Carolina Begiment 
of that name in the Mexican War; Charleston and Her 
Satirists: A Scrihhlement. By a City Bachelor (a hasty 
satire in reply to a pamphlet entitled ^'Charleston, a 
Satire," by a female abolitionist of unknown name), and 
Atalantis: A Story of the Sea. With the Eye and the 
Wing — Poems Chiefly Imaginative. In the last he in- 
cluded a revised form of ^'Atalantis" and such of his 
poems as seemed imaginative rather than fanciful. In 
1849 appeared The Cassique of Accahee: A Tale of Ash- 
ley River, with Other Pieces, the title poem being a 
pathetic Indian tale, and Sabhath Lyrics, or Songs from 
Scripture: A Christmas Gift of Love, mostly biblical 
paraphrases. At the consecration of Magnolia Ceme- 
tery in Charleston November 19, 1850, Simms read a 
poem on " The City of the Silent." 

Considering his other work, this was certainly no 
small amount for an aiitli(jr to produce in so short 
a time. Yet his poetic energies were not exhausted. 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 59 

In 1851 he publislied Norman Maurice: The Man of 
the People. An American Drama, and in 1852 another 
play, Michael Bonham; or, The Fall of Bexar. A Tale 
of Texas. In Five Parts. By a Southron. The first col- 
lected edition of his poems came in two large volumes 
the following year (1853) under the title, Poems 
Descriptive, Dramatic, Legendary, and Contemplative. 
After this, until 1860, his muse seems to have been 
silent, at least so far as the publication of any new 
volumes was concerned. In the latter year his last ante- 
bellum book appeared, Areytos, or Songs and Ballads 
of the South, with Other Poems, being much fuller than 
the "Areytos" of 1846, and containing most of the 
"Lays of the Palmetto" (1848), as well as a few revised 
poems from earlier volumes. 

All of these volumes being inaccessible, it would be 
presumptuous to enter upon a detailed criticism of them, 
even if that were a part of our plan, which it is not. 
The striking fact is that out of so large an amount of 
verse so little has survived in the popular mind. A few 
selections may be found here and there, but to the 
average reader of the present generation Simms's poetry 
is a thing unknown. That some of it was read and 
praised by his contemporaries, and that they regarded 
his poetic abilities as of no mean order, may be seen 
from the comments in the reviews of the time. Yet 
this could not give to his poetry the qualities necessary 
to make it live. There is no question that Simms pos- 
sessed genius, but his genius was for prose rather than 
poetry. Some of his verse is highly polished, and in- 



60 On Southern Poelnj Prior to 1860, 

dicates metrical skill, but metrical skill alone is not suffi- 
cient to write high-class poetry. The atmosphere of the 
spiritual must be there, and this in the most of Simms's 
verse is wanting. In -his most ambitious poem, "Ata- 
lantis," he attempted a difficult task, to produce a long 
and highly imaginative w^ork. It had a fair measure 
of success, and received favorable comment in reviews 
in Kew York and London. But that it was not fault- 
less is indicated by its appearing many years later in a 
revised form. 

Measured by quantity, Simms is assuredly one of the 
major ante-bellum poets of the South; measured by 
quality, his place is not so high. His reputation rested 
mainly on (1) his romances, novelettes, and collected 
stories (a partial bibliography of which comprises thirty- 
five titles), and (2) his History .of South Carolina, Biog- 
raphies of Francis Marion, Captain John Smith, Cheva- 
lier Bayard, and General Nathanael Greene, and many 
magazine reviews and articles on slavery and kindred 
subjects; in fine, on his prose rather than his poetry. 
But it should be remembered that though his poetry as 
a whole did not have the qualities that make for per- 
manence, isolated pieces show evidence of the true 
poetic fire, and command, if not our highest, yet our 
sincere admiration. 

We are already much indebted to the study of Simms 
by Professor Trent, and may here be allowed to quote 
at some length his opinion of Southern poetry before 
the war. 

Speaking of the series of sonnets in Grou'pcd Thoughts 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 61 

and Scattered Fancies, he says: ^^Occasionally a legiti- 
mate sonnet of the Shakespearean type Qccurs, * * * 
and then the poet is evidently at his best. The wonder 
is that he did not see that the stricter his form the better 
his poetry became. Bnt neither he nor any other ante- 
bellum Southern poet seems to have seen this funda- 
mental truth of poetic art. The Southern poet was too 
easy-going to succeed in any form of verse that required 
patience and skill. He preferred a less hampering 
stanza than the sonnet in which to display his genius, 
and sOj as might have been expected, he seldom displayed 
any genius at all. ^' ^ ^ The Southern poet never 
by any chance sang one pure and perfect strain." 

Again: ^^But life in the South, in spite of its pic- 
turesqueness in certain directions, was largely common- 
place with respect to the things of the mind. A South- 
erner had to think in certain grooves', or else have his 
opinions smiled at as harmless eccentricities. His imagi- 
nation was dwarfed because his mind was never really 
free, also because his love of ease rarely permitted him 
to exercise the faculty. He had no incitement to high 
poetic achievement from the influence shed upon him 
by great poets of a generation just passed. The models 
before him were those of statesmen and men of action, 
and he lost his chances for distinction if he proposed to 
himself any others. Besides, he had no critics, no audi- 
ence whose applause was worth having. His easy verses 
were received with a smile by his friends or with ex- 
travagant praise by an editor only too glad to fill his 



62 On Southern Poetry Prior to ISGO. 

columns. When praise was so readily obtained, he 
naturally took the easiest way to obtain it." 

'^And if a poet goes on writing in forms that are 
obviously not successful, it is a sign that he does not 
appreciate the first principles of his art. But this is 
precisely what Simms and the galaxy of small poets that 
surrounded him did for years. Hence, nearly all their 
poetic work, especially their sonnets, must be consid- 
ered as having failed. They could occasionally produce 
a good verse or two, they not infrequently had some- 
thing to say; but their poems rarely approximated per- 
fection, and so perished. Then, too, these poets lacked 
self-control in other respects. They let their emotions 
run away with them, and were forever gushing. They 
could not stop to think whether the subjects they had 
chosen were capable of poetic treatment. Simms wrote 
twelve sonnets on ^'Progress in America" and an equal- 
number on the Oregon question. * * * They were 
also more attracted by poetry of a rhetorical kind than 
by purer and simpler styles; but then a fondness for 
gorgeous rhetoric was a common Southern weakness." 
These faults '^are pre-eminently characteristic of South- 
ern poets, Poe alone excepted." 

Now, Professor Trent had access to much original 
material, and he supposably made of it a careful 
study, so his opinions are to be accorded respect. 
We cannot but feel, however, that he has been too 
severe upon the writers of the old South and has not 
given them the credit that was really their due. Hardly 
a single one of his judgments on Simms's poetry is, with- 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 63 

out qualification, favorable; in a few instances there is 
a word of praise, but it is faint, and faint praise usually 
means condemnation. It is not claimed that the praise 
should be meted out unstintedly, but what is given 
should not be given in a half-apologetic tone, as if it 
were contrary to the general attitude assumed by the 
critic. As was stated in the outset, w^e have depended 
in considerable measure upon Professor Trent's judg- 
ments, not only because the original material has been 
inaccessible to us, but because we have respect for Pro- 
fessor Trent's critical ability. But we repeat that his 
point of view is not that of many who are perhaps in a 
better position to pass judgment, and for some ^ reason 
he occasionally seems utterly out of sympathy with his 
subject. Finally, though, we must say that as a whole 
Professor Trent's book is well-nigh indispensable to the 
student of ante-bellum literary conditions. 

Por several pages of selections, cf. Griswold, 323 sq. ; 
Duyckinck, II., 427 sq. ; also, for bibliography, besides 
Trent's, cf. Allibone, II., 2184. Link's Pioneers of 
Southern Literature, 149 sq., contains a study of Simms 
as novelist and poet. Cf. also Manly, 252, and Appleton 
for a sketch by Mrs. Margaret J. Preston. ' 

Samuel M. Janney (1801-1880) was born in Loudoun 
county, Virginia. He was a prominent member of the 
Society of Friends, and wrote many articles concerning 
that order. He was also the author of TJie Country 
School House. A Prize Poem. 1825. The Last of the 
Lanape, and Other Poems, 1839 (cf. Southern Literary 
Messenger, Y., 505). A Teacher's Gift (poetry?), 1840. 



64 On Southern Poetry Prior to ISGO. 

For bibliograi^hy of prose works, cf. Allibone, I., 954, 
and Supplement, II., 900. 

Of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), certainly the 
brightest light in the history of Southern, and probably 
in' the history of American, poetry, what shall be said? 
The principal facts of his career are so well known, so 
much has been written about his life and work, his po- 
etry has been studied from so many points of view, that 
a discussion of them here seems almost superfluous. In 
any exhaustive history of Southern poetry the propor- 
tion of space assigned to Poe would necessarily have to 
be much larger than that assigned to any other poet. 
The plan of the present study, however, as- already 
stated, precludes such treatment. Yet as even a sketch 
of Southern poets or poetry would not approach com- 
pleteness without at least a limited discussion of Poe, 
we shall indicate, briefly, what seem to be the chief 
characteristics of his poetry, omitting detailed study 
and referring the reader to the numerous editions of Poe 
and the great mass of Poeana. 

Of the 2,923 pages of matter (exclusive of the intro- 
ductions and notes by the editors) which Messrs. Sted- 
man and Woodberry saw fit to reprint in their scholarly 
edition of Poe's Works (Chicago, 1894-'95, 10 vols.), 
136 include all the poems — not one-twentieth of the 
whole! And when Ave consider that not all these are 
well known, it is amazing that such a reputation as Poe's 
is based on so narrow a foundation. We say narrow, 
because it is as a poet above all that he is best known. 
It is true that other great poetic reputations have rested 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 65 

on narrow foundations, as Gray's, but few of them, if 
any, have elicited so keen an interest as that shown in 
the poetry of our author — an interest evidenced by the 
large amount of comment that has grown up in the last 
fifty years. 

The first volume appeared in 1827 — Tamerlane and 
Other Poems. By a Bostonian. Boston: Calvin F. S. 
Thomas. 40 pp., 12°. The second in 1829— AMaraaf, 
Tamerlane^ and Minor Poems. By Edgar 'Allan Poe. 
Baltimore: Hatch & Dunning, Yl pp., 8°. The third 
in 1831 — Poems. By Edgar A. Poe. Second Edition. 
:NTew York: Elam Bliss. 124 pp., 12°. The fourth 
and last during Poe's lifetime in 1846 — The Raven and 
Other Poems. By Edgar A. Poe. New York: "Wiley 
& Putnam. (Wiley & Putnam's Library of American 
Books.) (8), 91 pp., 12°. 

A study of the four volumes discloses the important 
fact that Poe was ever changing and ever polishing his 
work. The variorum of these texts has been included in 
the Stedman and Woodberry edition, and may be taken, 
as, indeed, it has already been,* as the basis for an ex- 
haustive study of the development of Poe's mind and 
art in his poetry. Fourteen years passed between the 
publication of the third and fourth volumes, and in this 
period Poe was gaining a great deal of experience as a 
man of letters, but the range of the whole body of his 
poetry is not wide; the ^'luxury of woe" seems to be the 
one theme that is elaborated and elaborated. As time 
sped on Poe's poetic theories were becoming more and 

*Cf. J. P. Fruit's The Mind and Art of Poe's Poetry. 
9 



66 On Southern Poetry Prior to ISGO. 

more defined, and he was adapting his poetry more and 
more to them, or rather the theories were being adapted 
more and more to the poetry. Believing that a poem 
should be based on emotion, he thought it could not 
therefore be long. Poetry with him was "the rhythmi- 
cal creation of beauty"; its object was not truth, but 
pleasure. Yet it may be said that underneath this was 
truth, for "beauty is truth, truth beauty." A distinctive 
melody that almost encroached upon music, combined 
with a rare subtlety of thought, not to be found in the 
work of other poets, marked his verse. Sound and sense 
went together. The forms of the stanzas, long and 
short lines, appealed to the eye and helped produce the 
desired effects. He used certain favorite defaces, like 
the refrain and the repetend, and a number of favorite 
words, but even the frequent use of them does not weary 
the reader. Consistent with his theory, he apparently 
never attempted to compose unless some strain possessed 
him in that mysterious way known only to true poets. 
lie was accordingly pre-eminently a lyrist. And so, 
though the amount he produced was small, though its 
range was limited, though his world was "located out of 
space, out of time," his poetry, taken all in all, possesses 
qualities entirely unique, qualities that destine it to live 
on indefinitely. 

We have aimed merely to indicate in a few words the 
more prominent traits of Poe^s verse. For more detailed 
criticisms, see the various biogra]">hies of Poe, especially 
Woodberry's, the Stedman and Wood berry edition of his 
works, John Phelps Fruit's "The Mind and Art of Poe's 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 67 

Poetry" (]!Tew York, 1899), one of the most recent and 
most sympathetic studies. For a bibliography of maga- 
zine articles referring to Poe and his work, see Joel 
Benton's "In the Poe Circle" (New York, 1899). For 
other studies, see Stedman's Poets of America (Boston, 
1887), and Pancoast's Introduction to American Litera- 
ture (E'ew York, 1898). 

George Washington Paeke Cttstis (1751-1857). 
Bom at Mt. Airy, Maryland. Died at Arlington House, 
Fairfax county, Virginia. Pocahontas: A National 
Drama. Philadelphia, 1830. Recollections of Wash- 
ington (memoir by his daughter and note by B. J. Loss- 
ing). IM^ew York, 1860. 

For biographical details, cf. Appleton, II., 45. 

Albert Pike (1809-1891). Born in Boston; studied 
at Harvard College, and subsequently taught in his 
native State and elsewhere; in 1831 travelled exten- 
sively in the South and West, and finally settled at 
Little Pock, Arkansas, becoming connected with the 
Arhansas Advocate, to which he had contributed some 
verses; became its owner two years later; practiced law, 
and sold his printing establishment 1836; employed to 
supervise the publication of Revised Statutes of Arkan- 
sas; served as captain of Company C, Arkansas Cavalry, 
in Mexican War; served as brigadier-general on Con- 
federate side in Civil War; became a prominent Hason 
and published about twenty-five works relating to the 
order; in 1867 editor of M&mpMs Appeal, one of the 
most influential journals in that section, but left it the 



68 On Southern Poetry Prior to ISGO. 

next year; later moved to Washington city, retired from 
law in 1880, and devoted himself largely to the interests 
of ^lasonry and literature. 

In 1831 he published Hymns to the Gods, v/hich, with 
additions, appeared in Blackwood's Magazine (June, 
1839). Of them "Christopher North" wrote: "These 
fine hymns entitle their author to take his place in the 
highest order of his country's poets." "A series of 
Hymns to the Gods, after the manner of Keats, which 
have justly commanded favorable notice" (H. T. Tuck- 
erman). "Here was also published the earnest poetry 
of Albert Pike, breathing the true spirit of old mythol- 
ogy." (E. S. Mackenzie: Hist, of Blackwood's Maga- 
zine, 1852.) 

To a reader of the present day these hymns do not 
appeal so strongly as they did to the readers of the 
earlier part of the century. "Crusty Christopher's'^ 
judgment of sixty years ago is no longer true. The 
hymns are the work of a youthful poet who had not mas- 
tered the secret of condensation; epithets, prepositional 
phrases, relative clauses are heaped one after the other 
so that the reader is almost breathless frequently before 
he finds the end of the sentence. The profusion of 
imagery cloys; much less would have been far more 
effective. Considerable imagination and classical knowl- 
edge are apparent; some striking lines and epithets are 
to be found, but generally the hymns are lacldng in deli- 
cacy of touch and are not easy reading. 

In 1834 Pike published Prose Sketches and Poems 
(Boston), and in 1834 or '35 Ariel. The ode, "To the 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 69 

Mocking Bird""^* (1836), was republished in Blackwood's 
for March, 1840. This is perhaps the best of the au- 
thor's poems, and also his best known. The third stanza 
is unusually fine, but the moralizing in the fourth and 
fifth stanzas detract somewhat from the poem as a 
whole. In addition to the last mentioned, his other pop- 
ular poems have been ^'To the Planet Jupiter," ^^Lines 
Written on the Rocky Mountains," and ^'Every Year," 
which has been widely printed in the newspapers. 
Nugae, including the Hymns to the Gods, was privately 
printed in 1854. 

For detailed biographical sketch and nine pages of 
selections, cf. G-riswold; also, cf. Allibone, IL, 1594; 
Duyckinck, II., 520; Manly, 365; Appleton, Y., 18; 
Alden, Yol. XVI. 

William H. Timeod (1792-1837) was born near 
Charleston, South Carolina. His father was Henry 
Timrod, a native of Germany, and his mother Miss Gra- 
ham, a gifted and highly-educated lady of the north of 
Ireland, though of Scotch descent. In early life Wil- 
liam apprenticed himself to a bookbinder, a choice of 
trade that was strongly opposed by his family. All 
efforts to dissuade him were fruitless, and he persisted, 
hoping to have access in this way to precious volumes 
that he could not afford to buy. He soon found, how- 
ever, that he had no time for reading during the day 
hours, and as the money at his disposal for the purchase 
of candles was limited, he had often to read at night by 

*Cf. Sidney Lanier's poem on a similar subject. 



70 On Soidhcni Poetry Prior to ISGO. 

the light of the moon. As time went on he succeeded 
in cultivating his talents to an unusual degree, and his 
shop became the resort of the most cultivated men in 
Charleston. E'ot only was .he a fine conversationalist, 
but he also wrote creditable verse. One of his poems, 
"To Time," is said to have elicited from Washington 
Irving the remark that Tom Moore had written no finer 
lyric. Among his other well-known poems are "The 
Mocking Bird," "Autumnal Day in Carolina — A Son- 
net," "To Harry" (his son Henry), and "Sons of the 
Union" (in which he ardently espoused the cause of the 
Union in the IvTullification excitement of 1832-'33). A 
five-act drama, which he considered the literary work of 
his life, was unfortunately lost while it was still in man- 
uscript. 

At nineteen he married Miss Prince, a beautiful girl 
of sixteen, the daughter of Charles Prince. I'lr. Prince's 
parents had come from England just before the Revolu- 
tion, and he had married a daughter of an officer in the 
Pevolutionary army, whose family were from Switzer- 
land. Timrod at one time occupied a position in the 
Charleston custom-house, though for how long has not 
been ascertained. In 1835 he was elected to command 
the German Fusileers, a military organization composed 
of Charlestonians of German descent. This appears to 
have been an ancient and honorable body, and Timrod's 
election may be taken as an indication of the esteem in 
which he was held by his fellow-citizens. Soon after- 
wards the Fusileers marched to St. Augustine, Florida, 
to garrison that town against the attacks of the Semi- 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 71 

noles, but the hardships of the campaign were too much 
for Timrod's strength, and brought on a disease from 
which he died about two years after his return to 
Charleston. 

The poems cited all show a true poetic temperament, 
but they are hardly sufficient in amount to give their 
author much prominence in the history of Southern 
poetry. 

For fuller details, with the poems mentioned, see 
Memoir of Henry Timrod, by Paul H. Hayne, in the 
1873 edition of Henry Timrod's Poems; also, Southern 
Review, Yol. XYIII., 35 sq. 

Penina Moise (1797-1880), born and died in Charles- 
ton, South Carolina. Hymns used in the Hebrew wor- 
ship. Yerses in "Home Journal," "Washington Union," 
and other publications. Fancy^s ShetcJi Booh (Charles- 
ton, 1833). 

Chaeles Christopher Pise (1802-1866), born in An- 
napolis, Maryland. A Catholic minister of some promi- 
nence. 

Pleasures of Religion and Other Poems (Philadelphia, 
1833). Acts of the Apostles done into Blanh Verse 
(1845). Poems contributed to Knickerbocker Maga- 
zine. 

Cf. AUibone, II., 1601, for bibliography of prose and 
a few biographical details ; also, Duyckinck Supplement, 
88; Stockbridge, 203. 

F. W. Thomas {circa 1810-1864), born in Balti- 
more (?), educated and admitted to the bar in Baltimore, 



72 On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

went West and practiced at Cincinnati, Ohio. Died in 
Washington, D. C. 

The Emigrant J or Reflections When Descending the 
Ohio: A Poem (Cincinnati, 1833). The Beechen Tree: 
A Tale Told in Rhyme, and Other Poems (New York, 
1844). Contributed verse to periodicals. ISTovels and 
sketches in prose. 

Cf. Allibone, III., 2386; Diijckinck, II., 548, for a 
short poem, " 'Tis said that absence conquers love"; 
Appleton, YI., 83. 

John Collins McCabe (1810-18T5). Born at Rich- 
mond, Yirginia. Died at Cliambersburg, Pennsylvania. 
Contributed a poem to first number of Southern Literary 
Messenger. Scraps. Richmond, 1835. 

Cf. Appleton, lY., Y4. 

Thomas Holley Ciiivers, M. D. (1807-1858). Born- 
near Washington, Georgia. Son of Colonel Robert 
Chivers, a wealthy planter and mill-owner. Graduated 
in medicine at Transylvania University (now Kentucky 
University) about 1828. After a few years' practice he 
chose literature as an occupation. At the age of twenty- 
five Chivers went North to live, and shortly afterwards 
married Miss Harriet Hunt, !^^any sorrows came to him 
in the death of several of his children, and in 1856 he 
returned to the South and made his final home in Deca- 
tur, Alabama, where he died in 1858. Tlie known de- 
tails of his life are meagre, and probably little interest 
would attach to them except for the fact that he is said 
to have been a precursor of Poe in some of the latter's 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 73 

poetical peculiarities. He published several volumes of 
poems, and some of them certainly had the Poe ring, 
but that Poe was influenced by them could not be 
proved, for the date of their publication was subsequent 
to the publication of Poe's own. In the absence of the 
works of Chivers (the only complete set is said to be in 
the British Museum), the opinion of Poe himself as to 
his poetry is interesting: 

"Dr. Thomas HoUey Chivers, of ]^ew York, is at the 
same time one of the best and one of the worst poets in 
America. Plis productions affect one as a wild dream — 
strange, incongruous, full of images of more than 
arabesque monstrosity, and snatches of sweet, unsus- 
tained song. Even his worst nonsense (and some of it 
is horrible) has an indeflnite charm of sentiment and 
melody. We can never be sure that there is any mean- 
ing in his words — neither is there any meaning in many 
of our finest musical airs — but the effect is very similar 
in both. His figures of speech are metaphor run mad, 
and his grammar is often none at all. Yet there are as 
fine individual passages to be found in the poems of Dr. 
Chivers as in those of any poet whatsoever. 

"His manuscript resembles that of P. P. Cooke very 
nearly, and in poetical character the two gentlemen are 
closely akin. Mr. Cooke is, by much, the more correct, 
while Dr. Chivers is sometimes the more poetic. Mr. 
Cooke always sustains himself; Dr. Chivers never." — 
Poe's Works, Yol. IX., 240, Stedman and "Woodberry 
Edition. 

10 



74: Oil Southern Poetry Prior to IS 60. 

Works by Chivers are: 

Conrad and Eudora; or. The Death of Alonzo. A 
Tragedy. Philadelphia, 1834. 

Nacooche; or. The Beautiful Star, and Other Poems. 
New York, 1837. 

The Lost Pleiad and Other Poems. New York, 1845. 

Eonchs of Piuby: A Gift of Love. JSTew York, 1851. 

Memoralia, or Phials of Amher. Fidl of the Tears of 
Love. A Gift for the Beautifid. Philadelphia, 1853. 

Yirginalia, or Songs of My Summer Nights and.Gift 
of Love for the Beaidiful. Pliiladelphia, 1853. 

The Sons of TJsna: A Tragic Apotheosis in Five Acts. 
Philadelphia, 1858. 

Atlanta; or, The True Blessed Island of Poesy: A 
Paul Epic in Three Lustra. Macon, Georgia, 1855. 

Por an entertaining discussion of the question of the 
precursorship, with various citations from Chivers's 
poems, see Joel Benton's "In the Poe Circle." (l^ew 
York, 1899.) 

George Henry Calvek't (1803-1889) was born in 
Baltimore, Maryland, the great-gi'andson of Lord Balti- 
more. He graduated at Harvard in 1823 and then 
studied in Germany. On his return to America he be- 
came the editor of the Baltimore American, and con- 
tinued as such for several years. He moved to Newport, 
Rhode Island, in 1843, and resided there the rest of his 
life. His fellow-citizens elected him Mayor in 1853, and 
he filled the office acceptably. He contributed prose and 
verse to many periodicals. His writings cover a wide 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. -76 

range of topics, many of them concerning the literature 
of France, Germany, Italy, and England. The Literary 
World, as quoted by AUibone, says: "Mr. Calvert is a 
scholar of refined tastes and susceptibilities educated in 
the school of Goethe, who looks upon the world at home 
and abroad in the light not merely of genial and inge- 
nious reflection, but with an eye of philosophical, prac- 
tical improvement." 

Among his ante-bellum works are : 

Translation of Don Carlos. A dramatic poem from 
Schiller. Baltimore, 1834. 

Cabiro. Cantos I. and II. Baltimore, 1840. 

Count Julian. Baltimore, 1840. 

Poems. Boston, 1847. 

Of. Stockbridge, 49; Alden, Yol. lY. ; Warner 
Library, XXIX., 87. 

William Boss Wallace (1819-1881) was born in 
Lexington, Kentucky, and educated at Bloomington and 
South Hanover Colleges, Indiana. He went to l^ew 
York early and practiced law, but gave it up for litera- 
ture, becoming a contributor to various periodicals. He 
produced several works, mostly poetry, of which the 
title_s have been found as follows: 

The Battle of Tippecanoe, etc. Cincinnati, 1837. 
Wordsworth. E'ew York, 1846. 
Allan, the Pirate. New York, 1848. 
The Loved, and the Lost (prose and poetry). 
Meditations in America and Other Poems. New York, 
1851. 



76 On Southern Poetry Prior to ISGO. 

The Liherly Bell, lloiv^s Illustrations. New York, 
18G2. 

The striking qualities of Wallace's poetry are serious- 
ness and imaginativeness. Blank verse is generally used, 
and it makes the flow of the lines more solemn than 
they would otherwise be. The poet is fond of meditat- 
ing on the grandeur of the past, and allows his imagina- 
tion to wander almost at will over the expanse of time 
and space. "Alban,'' a romance of New York, ^4s in- 
tended to illustrate the influence of certain prejudices of 
society and principles of law upon individual character 
and destiny.'' ^'The Mounds of America," the ^'Ilymn 
to the Hudson River," and "Chant of a Soul" may be 
taken as representing the main characteristics of his 
poetry. 

See Griswold, 4Y7 sq. ; Duyckinck, II., 692; Allibone, 
III., 2550; S. & H., YIL, 400; Stockbridge, 295; Foe's 
Works, Yol. YIIL, 280; Alden's Cyclopedia of Univer- 
sal Literature, Yol. XIX. 

Lewis Foulke Thomas (1815-1868). Born in Balti- 
more county, Maryland. Died in Washington, District 
of Columbia. Editor Daily Herald, Louisville, Ken- 
tucky. 

Inda and Other Poems — "the first book of poetry that 
was published west of the Mississippi." St. Louis, 1842. 

Osceola: A Tragedy. New Orleans, 1838. 

CorteZy the Conqueror: A Tragedy. Washington, 
185Y. 

Cf. Appleton, YL, 83. 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 77 

John "Wilson Campbell (1782-1833). Born in Au- 
gusta county, Virginia. Died in Delaware, Ohio. 

Volume of works, including nine poems (^^Biographi- 
cal Sketch and Literary Eemains/' by his widow, Colum- 
bus, Ohio, 1838). 

Cf. Appleton, I., 515. 

EoBEKT M. Chaelton (1807-1854). Born in Savan- 
nah, Georgia. Studied law; elected to the State Legisla- 
ture; became United States District Attorney; at 
twenty-seven was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court 
of the Eastern District of Georgia; in 1852 he was in the 
United States Senate. He was an accomplished orator 
and writer of both prose and verse, essays, sketches, lec- 
tures, etc. In 1839 he published a volume of poems, in 
which he included the poetical remains of his brother. 
Dr. T. J. Charlton, who had died in 1835. The second 
edition appeared in 1842, and, besides additions and 
alterations in the poems, contains certain prose compo- 
sitions by R. M. Charlton. 

His verse flows easily and without effort. ^'The Death 
of Jasper," an historical ballad, is a vigorous description 
of Sergeant Jasper's daring feat in rescuing the flag at 
Tort Moultrie. Liveliness seems to be the most notice- 
able characteristic of all the selections available. 

See Duyckinck, II., 435, for sketch of life and three 
poems. Also, Allibone, 370, for meagre details. 

Franqois Dominique Rouqtjette (1810 ). Born 

at 'New Orleans, Louisiana. Educated at Royal College 
of N^antes. 



78 On Southern Poetry Prior to ISOO. 

» 

Mescliaceheennes (in French). Paris, 1839. 

Fleurs d^ Amerique : Poesies Nouvelles. New Orleans, 
1857. 

For a discussion of the brothers Rouqiiette (F. D. and 
A. E.) and a number of other Louisiana poets who wrote 
in French, see Professor Alcee Fortier's ^'Louisiana 
Studies'' (New Orleans, 1894). Also, Allibone, II., 
1877, and Dujekinck, II., 521. 

John Newland Maffitt (1795-1850). Born in Dub- 
lin, Ireland. Emigrated to America in 1819 and became 
a Methodist preacher, attracting for many years large 
audiences. Associate editor Western Methodist, ISTash- 
ville, Tennessee, 1833. Professor of Elocution, La 
Grange College, Alabama, 1837. He died in Mobile, 
Alabama. 

He published a volume of Poems (Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, 1839) and other works, the best known being, per- 
haps, Pulpit Sketches (Boston, 1828). Ireland: A 
Poem. Louisville, 1839. Literary and Religious 
Sketches. Poems in the volume. New York, 1832. 

Cf. Applcton, IV., 172; Stockbridge, 159. 

William Pussell Smith (1813 ). Born in Ala- 
bama. Educated at the University of Alabama; prac- 
ticed law at Greensboro; was an army officer in the 
Creek War, 1836; establislicd the TusGoloosa Monitor 
in 1838; held offices of civil trust; was opposed to seces- 
sion, but was a member of the Confederate Congress, 
1861-'65. He afterwards became president of the State 
University. {Stoclcbridge, ) 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 79 

In 1841 Le published The Alabama Justice (poem?) 
(New York); second edition, Montgomery, Alabama, 
1850; third edition 1859. The Uses of Solitude: A 
Poem, appeared in 1860, and in the same year As It Is: 
A Novel. He was the author also of other works pub- 
lished after 1860. 

See AUibone, II., 2164. 

Chaeles F. Deems (1820-1893). Born in Baltimore, 
Maryland. Graduated at Dickinson College, 1839; Pro- 
fessor in the University of IsTorth Carolina, 1842; Pro- 
fessor of Chemistry in Randolph-Macon College, 1848; 
President of Greensboro College, N^orth Carolina, 1850; 
President of Centenary College, 1854. Has been a 
prominent minister of the Methodist Church and held 
many other important positions. 

In addition to various religious works he wrote 
Triumph of Peace and Other Poems. In 1841 he pub- 
lished Devotional Melodies (Raleigh). 

Cf. AUibone, I., 488, and Supplement, 4Y0; also, 
Alden, Yol. YL, 173. 

Richard Henry Wilde (1789-1847) was a native of 
Dublin, Ireland, and was brought to Baltimore by his 
father and mother in 1797. The former soon died, and 
in 1802 the family removed to Augusta, Georgia, where 
the mother invested her small property in a merchan- 
dizing establishment, managed by her son Richard. 
Assisted by friends, Richard was enabled to prepare him- 
self for the practice of law, and in due time was admit- 
ted to the bar. He rose to be Attorney-General of the 



so On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

State, and served as a member of Congi-ess in 1815, in 
1825, and from 1828 to 1835. In 1834 he was a promi- 
nent candidate for Speaker of the House, but was even- 
tually defeated by John Bell. Failing of re-election to 
Congress on account of his opposition to certain popular 
Jacksonian views, he went abroad and spent two years, 
travelling in England, France, Belgium, Switzerland, 
and Italy, studying literature and the other fine arts, 
particularly in Florence, where he discovered in the Bar- 
gello Chapel a portrait of Dante that had been covered 
with whitewash. While in Italy he collected material 
for a life of Tasso and a life of Dante. Beturning to 
America, he removed to IsTeAv Orleans, and was admit- 
ted to that bar in 1844. On the organization of the 
Law Department of the University of Louisiana in the 
spring of 184Y, he was appointed Frofessor of Common 
Law, and served until his death the following September. 
The only work he published was Conjectures and Re- 
sear dies Concerning the Love, Madness, and Imprison- 
ment of Torquato Tasso, the result of his studies and 
investigations in Italy (2 volumes, 'New York, 1842). 
It is valuable not only as a contribution to the history 
of Italian literature, but as containing a number of 
translations of Tasso's verses. He was the author of an 
article in the Southern Revietu on "Petrarch," and wrote 
poetry, both original and translated, for the magazines. 
His translations from Italian, Spanish, and French pos- 
sess grace and finish. He left a large number of manu- 
scripts, including an incomplete Life of Dante; a collec- 
tion of translations; of Italian lyrics, which it was his 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 81 

plan to pTiblish with, biographical sketches of the au- 
thorg; and a completed poem of several cantos, entitled 
"Hesperia," subsequently edited and published by his 
son (Boston, 1867). 

Wilde's best title to fame is based on a little poem 
whose first line is ^^My life is like the summer rose." 
Much controversy arose as to its authorship, and it will 
be proper to give some account of the origin of the poem. 

Mr. Wilde's brother James, who had been a subaltern 
officer in the Seminole War, interested him in Florida, 
and he decided to write an epic with the scene laid in 
that State. This he never completed, but a lyric that it 
contained, called "The Lament of the Captive," but now 
known by its first line, "My life is like the summer 
rose," got into print about 1815 through a musician into 
whose hands it had come for the purpose of being set to 
music, and became widely popular. It was suggested by 
the story of Juan Ortez, the last survivor of the ill- 
fated expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez. Soon after the 
publication of the poem it was said in the North Ameri- 
can Review to have been translated from a Greek ode 
which purported to have been written by Alcaeus. Schol- 
ars soon discovered that the latter was not genuine, and 
it was found to be the work of Anthony Barclay, of 
Savannah, Georgia, who had translated Mr. Wilde's 
poem into Greek for his own amusement. Mr. Barclay 
subsequently wrote an "Authentic Account of Wilde's 
Alleged Plagiarism," which was published by the Geo^*- 
gia Historical Society (Savannah, 1871). 



82 On Southern Poelry Prior io 1860. 

The poem is sometimes printed in six stanzas and 
sometimes in three, as follows: 

" Mj^ life is like the summer rose 

That opens to ,the morning sky, 
But ere the shades of evening close, 

Is scatter'd on the ground — to die! 
Yet on the rose's humble bed 
The sweetest dews of night are shed, 
As if she wept the waste to see — 
But none shall weep a tear for me! 

" My life is like the autumn leaf 

That trembles in the moon's pale ray, 
Its hold is frail — its date is brief, 

Restless — and soon to pass away! 
Yet, ere that leaf shall fall and fade. 
The parent tree will mourn its shade. 
The winds bewail the leafless tree. 
But none shall breathe a sigh for me! 

" My life is like the prints, which feet 
Have left on Tampa's desert strand; 
Soon as the rising tide shall beat, 

All trace will vanish from the sand; 
Yet, as if grieving to efface 
All vestige of the human race. 
On that lone shore loud moans the sea. 
But none, alas! shall mourn for me!" 

While these stanzas are of nnqnestioned merit they 
are not the poet's only claim to recoonition, for he wrote 
a nnm])er of others of nearly, if not qnite, equal merit. 
The sonnet "To the Mockin^j; Bird" Avonld perhaps rank 
next to "The Lament of the Captive." It has a wild, 
free note of expression that is peculiarly sngcjestive of 
the bird itself. "Napoleon's Grave" and "To Lord 
Byron" betray a part of the influences that affected the 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 83 

poet. ^^The Ode to Ease" and ^^Solomon and the 
Genius'' are poems of reflection, which is one of the 
prominent marks of onr author's work, others being 
seriousness and sincerity. All of these evidence consid- 
erable metrical skill. 

For *a detailed account of life, see Rntherford, 141, 
and Appleton, YI., 505; for several poems, including 
all those cited, see Grriswold, 109; also, Duyckinck, II., 
106; Allibone, III., 2718; S. & H., Y., 184; Willmott, 
194; Trent, 146, et passim. 

Augustus Julian Requiek (1 8 2 5-1 8 8 Y). Born in 
Charleston, South Carolina, where he was educated and 
became a lawyer. He removed to Marion, South Caro- 
lina, and subsequently to Mobile, Alabama. In 1853 he 
was appointed United States Attorney for the Southern 
District of Alabama. 

In 1842 he published The Spanish Exile, a Drama, 
which is said to have been successful. About 1844 The 
Old Sanctuary, a Romance, appeared. The collected 
edition of his poems was published in 1860. 

Cf. Duyckinck, II., 720, for biographical details and 
"Ode to Shakespeare"; Allibone, II., 1775. 

Catherine Ware Warfield (1816-1877) and Elea- 
nor Ware Lee (1820-1849), daughters of Hon. Nathan- 
iel Ware, of Mississippi, were born near the city of 
ISTatchez. Catherine Ware married Mr. Warfield, of 
Lexington, Kentucky, and Eleanor married Mr. Lee, of 
Yicksburg. They published conjointly in 1843 The Wife 
of Leon and Other Poems, and in 1846 The Indian 



84 On Southern Poetnj Prior to ISGO. 

Chamber and Other Poems. The parts contributed by 
each author are not distinguished. "The poems in ballad, 
narrative, and reflection exhibit a ready command of 
poetic language and a prompt susceptibility to poetic 
impressions. They have had a wide popularity." The 
two poems, "I Walk in Dreams of Poetry" and "She 
Comes to ]Me," show ease of versification, but no striking 
qualities. 

In addition to the two volumes of poems mentioned 
above, Mrs. Warfield has published TJie House of Bou- 
verie: A Romance (1860) and The Romance of the Great 
Seal (1867). 

Cf. Duyckinck, II., 683, and Allibone, III., 2582, and 
TL, 1073; Stockbridge, 301. 

Amelia B. (Coppuck) Welby (1819-1852) was born 
at St. Michael's, Maryland. She moved early Avitli her 
father to the West, and resided at Lexington and Louis- 
ville, Ky., where she met and married Mr. George Welby 
in 1838. She died at Louisville in 1852. 

She began to contribute to the Louisville Journal in 
1837 over the signature "Amelia." The first edition of 
her poems was published at Boston 1845, and by 1860 
the number of editions that had been published was 
fourteen. The poems are generally on subjects of do- 
mestic interest, and, "without profound poetical culture, 
are written with ease and animation." SaysPoe: "Very 
few American poets are at all comparable with her in 
the true poetic qualities. As for our poetesses (an ab- 
surd, but necessary word), few of them approach her. 
-X- -X- -X- ^Iyq^ Welby owes three-fourths of her power 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 85 

(so far as style is concerned) to her freedom from these 
vulgar and particularly English errors, elision and inver- 
sion. -^ * ^ Upon the whole there are some poets 
in America (Bryant and Spragne, for example) who 
equal Mrs. Welby in the negative merits of that limited 
versification which they chiefly affect — the iambic pen- 
tameter, but none equal her in the richer and positive 
merits of rhythmical variety, conception, invention. 
They, in the old routine, rarely err. She often sur- 
prises, and always delights, by novel, rich, and accurate 
combination of the ancient musical expressions." 

See Duyckinck, II., 677; AUibone, III., 2635 (refer- 
ences to reviews of her works) ; S. & H., YIL, 563; Poe's 
Works (Stedman and Woodberry edition), YI., 79, and 
YIII., 283. 

Theodore O'Haea (1820-1867) was born in Danville, 
Kentucky. His father, Kane O'Hara, was an educated 
Irish gentleman, who conducted one of the earliest 
academies in Kentucky. His maternal ancestors were 
Irish also, emigrating from their home with Lord Balti- 
more to escape the disabilities imposed upon Roman 
Catholics. Theodore received his education from his 
father and at a Catholic College in Bardstown, Ken- 
tucky. On his entrance at the latter he was so well pre- 
pared that he was enabled to join the senior class in all 
but higher mathematics, a subject which he mastered 
in a few weeks. After a brilliant career at college he 
began the study of law in the office of Judge Owsley, 
where he was a fellow-student with John C. Breckin- 
ridge, and formed with him a lasting friendship. Ad- 



86 On Souihern Poetry Prior to ISGO. 

mitted to the bar at Frankfort in 1842, O'llara found 
that 'Hhe restlessness of an adventurous nature and a 
passion for the heroic and beautiful warred against the 
substantial requirements of his profession." On the 
occasion of tlie re-interment of the remains of Daniel 
Boone and his wife Eebecca, September, 1845, he com- 
posed his first well-known poem, '^The Old Pioneer.'' 
He secured, a position: in the Treasury Department at 
Washington, but resigned the next year (1846) to serve 
in the Mexican War, and was appointed a captain. He 
fought at Contreras, was badly wounded at Cherubusco, 
where he was brevettcd for gallant and meritorious con- 
duct. On July 20, 1847, Kentucky gave her soldiers 
who had fallen at Buena Vista a great public funeral at 
Frankfort. In the autumn of the same year, when en- 
thusiasm in the State was high, and soon after his return 
from Mexico, he wrote his celebrated martial elegy, ^^The 
Bivouac of the Dead." A second attempt at law in 
Washington city was soon abandoned, and he was an 
editorial writer on the Frankfort Yeor)ian when the ill- 
fated Lopez Cuban expedition was organized in 1850. 
He went as second in command to Lopez himself, was 
wounded and narrowly escaped the tragic fate of his less 
fortunate companions. Reaching the United States 
again, he was after- various experiences appointed a cap- 
tain in the famous Second Cavalry of the regular army, 
a regiment noted for the number of general officers it 
afterwards furnished in the Civil War, among whom 
M'ere Robert E, Lee, George H. Thomas, Albert Sidney 
Johnston, Stoncinaii, Tlood, and Ivirby Smith. But gar- 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 87 

rison life was too monotonous^ and lie soon resigned and 
took np journalism again, acting for a time as editor of 
the Mobile Register. He took a prominent part in the 
war, serving on the staffs of Albert Sidney Johnston and 
John C. Breckinridge. At its close he went to Colnm- 
bus, Ga., and engaged in the cotton business with a rela- 
tive, but they a short time afterwards lost all by fire. 
He then retired to a plantation a^few miles distant, near 
Guerrytown, Alabama, and was laboring successfully 
when he died, June 6, 1867. 

By an act of the Kentucky Legislature his remains 
were removed in 1874 to Frankfort and laid to rest in 
the cemetery where had been inspired '^'The Bivouac of 
the Dead.'' 

O'Hara's reputation as a poet rests almost wholly on 
^'The Bivouac of the Dead." The original version ap- 
peared in the Mohile Register while O'Hara was acting- 
as editor in 1858. In 1860 it appeared in an improved 
form, and again in 1863 it was altered. Still not satis- 
fied, the author subsequently reduced it from twelve to"' 
nine stanzas, and in that form it was left at his death. 

The measure adopted in this poem — iambic-tetrameter 
alternating with iambic-trimeter — gives it a martial 
"tread" that is peculiarly impressive, and a single read- 
ing will leave the lines ringing in one's ears indefinitely. 
It is not, like many other martial elegies, confined to any 
particular section or race; it is universal and its senti- ' 
ments are true for all time. The language is simple; it 
contains only one word of as many as four syllables, and 
but twelve that can be counted as having three, the 



88 On Southern Poelry Vnor lo 1860. 

words with two syllables numbering eighty, and those 
with one syllable 30G! Perhaps this fact is one secret 
of its power. The poem has been widely quoted and 
parts of it extensively used as epitaphs. It has served 
doubtless to preserve O'Hara's memory more than any- 
thing else in his whole career, and is worthy to live as 
long as wars are fought and heroic souls perish in them. 
Another poem already alluded to, ^'The Old Pioneer," 
is a tribute to the memory of Daniel Boone and his wife. 
Written in the same meter, it has some of the move- 
ment as ^'The Bivouac of the Dead," but is not so im- 
pressive. It breathes the spirit of veneration for the 
noble character of Boone and of love for the land he 
settled. The last stanza (of the six) will be sufficient to 
indicate the key-note of the whole. 

" A dirge for the brave old pioneer! 

The patriarch of his tribe! 
He sleeps, no pompous -pile marks where, 

No lines his deeds describe. 
They raised no stone above him here,* 

Nor carved his deathless name — 
An Empire is his sepulcher, 

His epitaph is Fame." 

O'lTara had a facile pen, and wielded it well in the 
causes he espoused. The only poems by him that we 
have found, however, are the two mentioned. That he 
was not more productive in this line was due, perhaps, 
to the restlessness of his nature. Yet "The Bivouac of 
the Dead" and "The Old Pioneer" are enough to give 

*This poem was written before the Boone monument at 
Frankfort was erected. 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 89 

him an honorable place not only in Southern, but in 
American literature also. 

For a full account of his life, see George W. RancFs 
The Bivouac of the Dead and Its Author (Cincinnati, 
1898); also, see Manly, 308; Kutherford, 494. 

William Munfoed (1Y75-1825). Born in Mecklen- 
burg county, Virginia. Son of Colonel Robert Munf ord, 
who was a distinguished officer in the Bevolution and 
the author of two dramas and some minor poems (Pe- 
tersburg, 1798). Educated at the College of William 
and Mary, where he studied the classics and afterwards 
the law under the celebrated George Wythe. Elected 
to the Virginia House of Delegates at twenty-one and 
served from 1797 to 1801. Senator from the same dis- 
trict, 1801-1805. Member of the Privy Council of State 
from the end of his term as senator till 1811, when he 
was appointed Clerk of the House of Delegates, a posi- 
tion which he retained up to his death. He removed to 
Richmond in 1805, and resided there the rest of his life. 

In 1798 he published at Richmond a volume of 
Poems and Compositions in Prose on Several Occasions. 
This included a tragedy, "Almoran and Hamet," several 
versifications of Ossian, translations from Horace, and 
a number of occasional poems. They were the work of 
a very young man, and possess but small value as litera- 
ture. 

Munford's chief claim to remembrance is his Transla- 
tion of Homer^s Iliad into blank verse. Upon this work 
he was engaged during his leisure from his regular duties 
for many years, completing it just before his death. It 

12 



90 On Southern Poetry Prior to ISGO. 

remained in manuscript, however, nntil 1846, when it 
was published in two octavo volumes (Boston). In the 
preface he says: ^The author of this. translation was in- 
duced to undertake it by fond admiration of the almost 
unparalleled sublimity and beauty of the original; 
neither of which peculiar graces of Homer's muse has, 
as he conceives, been sufficiently expressed in the smooth 
and melodious rhymes of Pope. - * * When the fol- 
lowing work was commenced, and considerably in pro- 
gress, I had not seen nor heard of the translation by 
Cowper. If that deservedly popular poet had manifested 
the same talents in that as in his other works I would 
have relinquished my enterprise as unnecessary and 
hopeless; but it must be admitted even by his greatest 
admirers that his version of Ilomer is a very defective 
production, * * ^- My opinion of the duty of a 
translator is that he ought uniformly to express the 
meaning and spirit of his author with fidelity in such 
language as is sanctioned by the use of the best writers 
and speakers of his own time and country; not to render 
word for word, with servile accuracy, especially in cases 
where from the diversity of the idioms the effect would 
be awkward and unpleasant. * * * j^ translator 
ought, therefore (preserving, by all means as most essen- 
tial, the spirit and fire of the original), to consider in 
every instance how Homer would have expressed the 
thought in question, if, Avith the manners and habits of 
ancient Greece he had written in English, not in the 
English of Spenser or Shakespeare, but in that now in 
use. * *' * Every writer, in every age, ought to 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 91 

express his ideas, whether original or translated, in 
words intelligible to his contemporaries, carefully avoid- 
ing a medley of obsolete and modern phrases, by blend- 
ing which some authors of high renown in our times have 
greatly corrupted our language. * * * With these 
restrictions, the rule of the translator should be to ad- 
here strictly to the sense of the original, not presuming 
to omit ideas because he does not like them, nor rashly 
essaying to embellish or improve his author by additions 
or variations of his own. * * * With respect to the 
measure employed in this work, I have chosen that which 
Milton denominates ' our English heroic verse without 
rhyme,' because I think it best adapted to the free and 
forcible expression of Homer's animated effusions of 
fancy and passion. But I have not imitated Milton or 
any other writer. With a boldness which some may con- 
sider presumptuous, I have made an attempt to adopt a 
style of my own, sedulously avoiding that inverted and 
perplexing arrangement which too often prevails in the 
structure of this species of metre, for in my opinion it 
is not impossible to combine in blank verse ease and 
smoothness with strength and variety. -^^ * * Pope 
has equipped him (Homer) in the fashionable style of a 
modern fine gentleman; Cowper displays him, like his 
own Ulysses, in ^ rags unseemly,' or in the uncouth 
garb of a savage. Surely, then, there is room for an 
effort to introduce him to the acquaintance of my coun- 
trymen in the simple, yet graceful, costume of his own 
heroic times. The design at least will be admitted to 
be good, however imperfect its execution may be." 



92 On Southern Poetrij Prior to 18G0. 

Such, iu Miinford's own words, are his reasons for 
undertaking so ambitious a work, and his ideas of what 
such a translation should be. How far he succeeded in 
his task is for the classical scholar rather than the gen- 
eral reader to determine. Without dwelling upon de- , 
tails it A\dll suffice to note briefly the prominent features 
of Munford's work. 

Fidelity to the original is perhaps its greatest merit, 
and when it is remembered that fidelity does not mean 
mere literalness, that is one of the greatest merits which 
it could possess. In this and in nerve and energy of 
expression it surpasses the previous translations, includ- 
ing the best, those of Pope and Cowper. Indeed, the 
opinion was advanced at the time of its publication that 
it was the most faithful of all translations of any work 
into the English language. In passages where sound 
and sense correspond, Munford wrought unusually well, 
as comparison of the original with various translations 
will show. 

During Munford's lifetime, the published results of 
the more advanced investigations in the study of the 
Homeric poems were not generally obtainable in this 
country, and hence his critical helps were deficient, and 
he consequently fell into some errors not only in the 
translation itself, but in the comments on the text as 
well. He seems to have been a better scholar than Pope, 
and fully the equal of Cowper. The defects are mainly 
in the translations of certain phrases about which classic- 
ists have had so much discussion, and the meanings of 
whicli are matters of opiuioii. That with liis limited 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 93 

apparatus criticus he was able to produce as excellent a 
version as lie did is greatly to his credit. 

Taken as a whole, this translation is much superior to 
any of its predecessors in ^^fidelity, nervousness of ex- 
pression, vigor and freshness of thought, and truthful- 
ness.'' It is one of the best from which any adequate 
idea can be formed of the "manner, style, sentiment, and 
language of Homer." 

For an extended review by the late Professor George 
F. Holmes, of the University of Virginia, with copious 
quotations and comparisons v/ith the translations of Pope 
and Cowper, see the Southern Quarterly Keview, Yol. 
X. (1846), pp. 1-45. Also, E'orth American Eeview, 
LXIIL, 149 (Professor C. C. Felton); Christian Exam- 
iner, XLL, 205; American Whig Eeview, lY., 350; S. 
& H., lY., 347; for biographical details see Allibone, IL, 
1386; Duyckinck, I., 642; Appleton, lY., 459; E'at. 
Cyclo., LX., 108, and "Advertisement" in the original 
edition of the Translation, Yol. I. 

Philip Pendleton Cooke (1816-1850) was born in 
Martinsville, Berkeley county, Yirginia, the son of John 
R. Cooke, who practiced law in Richmond for many 
years, and the elder brother of John Esten Cooke, the 
novelist. Entering Princeton when about fifteen, he 
graduated in the class of 1834. He then studied law with 
his father at Winchester, and before twenty-one was 
married and practicing as a lawyer in Millwood. Apart 
from his profession he devoted considerable time to 
literature and held sports, and became noted as the best 



94 On Southern Poetry Prior to ISGO, 

huntsman of the Shenandoah Valley. He died near 
Boyce, Virginia. 

He contributed prose and verse to the Knickerbocker 
Magazine and to the Southern Literary Messenger. The 
only book he published was Froissart Ballads and Other 
Poems (Philadelphia, 1847), the Ballads being based on 
the stories of the old French chronicler. Emily: Proem 
to the Froissart Ballads, gives the "frame" for the Bal- 
lads — a young lover telling the stories to his sweetheart. 

" * * * In the wells 

Of Froissart's lifelike chronicles 
I dipp'd for moving truths of old. 
A thousand stories, soft and bold, , 

Of stately dames and gentlemen, 
Which good Lord Berners, with a pen 
Pompous in its simplicity, 
Yet tipt with charming courtesy. 
Had put in English words, I learn'd; 
And some of these I deftly turn'd 
Into the forms of minstrel verse. 
I know the good tales are the worse — 
But, sooth to say, it seems to me 
My verse has sense and melody — 
Even that its measure sometimes flows 
With the brave pomp of that old prose." 

The rhymed couplet gives a poetical swing to the lines, 
but they display a good deal of self-consciousness. 

Cooke's fame rests mainly on a few ringing lyrics, 
among them, "To My Daughter Lily," "Young Kosalie 
Lee," and "Florence Vane," the last being perhaps the 
best of all. It has been translated into many languages. 

To the Southern Literary Messenger he contributed 
the tales John Carpe, The Two Houses, The Gregories 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 95 

of HacJcwood, TJie Crime of Andrew Blair, PJrysictlion, 
Dante, and a number of reviews. The Chevalier Merlin, 
wliich Poe called less a novel than a prose poem, was 
running as a serial at tlie time of his death, and was left 
unfinished. 

Cooke was impressive in his personality and shone in 
conversation. His poetry indicates a vein of genius, but 
it was not thoroughly wrought out and does not fully 
represent his powers. 

For quotations from his poems and biographical data, 
see Duyckinck, II., 635; GrisAvold, 455; Allibone, I., 
422; S. & H., YII., 294; Willmott, 456; Eutherford, 
428; Manly, 305. 

James Matthews Legaeb (1823-1859), of Charles- 
ton, South Carolina, was a relative of the eminent scholar 
and statesman, Hugh S. Legare. He published (Boston, 
1848) Orta-Undis and Other Poems, in Latin and Eng- 
lish, and contributed to various periodicals. His favor- 
ite themes are love and nature. "Thanatokallos," pos- 
sibly suggested by Bryant's Thanatopsis, contains a vivid 
picture of death, though the details used are rather re- 
pellent to the sensitive reader. The blank verse in which 
it is written moves with dignity and self-control. "Maize 
in Tassel," shorter than the preceding, is pervaded with 
religious feeling. "Amy" is a tender little poem of love 
and nature. 

Judging from these few poems, Legare's poetic sense 
was not of the common nor of the fervent, gushing kind. 
It betrays, on the contrary, possibly too much calmness. 

See Griswold, 493; Duyckinck, II., Y20; Allibone, I., 
1078; S. & H, YIIL, 149. 



96 On South cm Poetry Prior to 1860. 

Louisa Susannah McCoeb (1810-1880) was born in 
Columbia, South Carolina, the daughter of Hon. Lang- 
don Cheves, a prominent politician of the time. In 1840 
she married Colonel D. J. McCord, a distingr.ished law- 
yer of Columbia. She wrote much on slavery and 
woman's rights and kindred subjects for the Southern 
Quarterly Review, DeBow's Eeview, and the Southern 
Literary Messenger. In one of h^r articles she is said 
to have given "a rather sharp handling" to Mrs. Stowe's 
''Uncle Tom's Cabin." During the Civil War she ren- 
dered excellent service in the hospitals of her native 
place. 

In 1848 she published a volume of poems, My Dreams 
(Philadelphia), and in 1851 Cains Gracclins, a Tragedy 
in Five Acts (IsTew York), a drama for the study 
rather than for the stage. "The Voice of Years" is much 
above the average of fugitive poems. 

See Duyckinck, II., 251, for bibliography. of prose and 
quotations from her poetry; Allibone, II., 1162 (refer- 
ences); S. &H., VL, 511. 

Margaret Junktn Preston (1825-1897) w^as born in 
Philadelphia. Her father was Eev. Dr. George Junkin, 
a Presbyterian minister, well known as an educator, 
being the founder of .Lafayette College, in Pennsylva- 
nia, and president of Washington College, Lexington, 
Virginia, from 1848 to 1861. Her education was re- 
ceived at home from her father and from private tutors. 
In 1857 she married Colonel J. T. L. Preston, one of 
the founders of the Virginia Military Institute, her sis- 
ter Eleanor being the first wife of General "Stonewall" 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 97 

Jackson. Her life was lived quietly and unobtrusively 
in Lexington, and lier death occurred in 1897. 

She contributed first to Sartain's Magazine in 1849- 
'50, and later to various other periodicals, acquiring some 
reputation as a writer of fugitive verse. Her transla- 
tion of Dies Irae appeared in 1855, and was very favor- 
ably commended. Silverwood: A Booh of Memories 
(prose), came in 1857 before her marriage. 

The work that gave her widest recognition, however, 
was done after the war. BeechenhrooTc, sl poem in 
ten parts, which dealt with events of the war, 
brought her into great favor in the South, 
and went through eight editions. It contained one 
of her most famous short poems, ^'^Slain in Battle!" 
Other works appeared at intervals up to within a com- 
paratively short time before her death. A partial list 
includes The Yoimg Ruler^s Question (1869), Old Songs 
and New (1870), Cartoons (1875), For Lovers Sahe 
(1886), Colonial Ballads (1887), Aunt Dorothy (1890), 
and Handful of Monographs (?). 

Besides vigor and freedom of flow, Mrs. Preston's 
work has a deep religious feeling and a humanity and 
insight that have endeared her to a wide circle of read- 
ers, both in the I^Torth and in the South. A more de- 
tailed study of it would hardly be proper in this paper, 
as it lies almost wholly beyond our period. 

We are informed that a biography of Mrs. Preston is 
now in course of preparation by her daughter, Mrs. 
Allen, of Lexington, Virginia. 

For some discussion, see Rutherford, 557; Manly, 
13 



98 On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

324; Allibone, IL, 1676; T., 1005, and Siippl., 1251; 
Appleton, Y., ^\?,\ for two poems, see Warner Library, 
XLL, 16782 and 16961. 

(^\TiiKKixE (Jendkon Po'yas (1 SI 8-1 882). Born, edu- 
cated, and died at Charleston, South Oaroh'na. 

Huguenot Daughters and Other Poems. Oharleston, 
1849. Year of Grace. 1869. In Memory of Bev. C. P. 
Gadsden, etc. Charleston, 1871. 

See Appleton, YI., 100 (meagTe details). 

Sidney Dyer (1814 ). Born at Cambrido-e, T^ew 

York. A clergyman; mostly self-educated. AVas sec- 
retary of Indian Mission, Louisville, Kentucky. Ke- 
sided also in Indianapolis and Philadelphia. 

He published a volume of poems called Voices of 
Nature. Louisville, Kentucky, 1849. Songs and Bal- 
lads. 'Rew York, 1857. Psalmist for the Use of Bap- 
tist Churches J 1854. 

For other biographical ajid bibliographical details, 
see Appleton, II. , 286. 

Henry- R. Jackson (1820 ). Born at Athens, 

Georgia. Gradnated at Yale, 1839. Practiced law in 
Savannah, and became Judge of the Eastern Circuit. 
Served as colonel in the Mexican War and as brigadier- 
general on the Confederate side in the Civil War. Y^as 
for five years Minister to Austria before the Civil Y^ar, 
and in Cleveland's first administration was Minister to 
Mexico. Has also lu^hl various other ])olitical positions. 
Judge Jackson's abilities as nu orator are well known. 

He has written many fugitive |)oems, a volume of 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 99 

which was published in 1850 with the title Tallulah and 
Other Poems (Savannah). Of these ''Mj Father/' ^'My 
Wife and Child/' and "Old Ked Hills of Georgia" at- 
tracted most attention. 

For a somewhat detailed account of life, see Ruther- 
ford, 523, and Appleton, III., 387; for poems, see 
Dujckinck, II., 693, and Griswold, 537. 

I\iARY Elizabeth Lee (1813-1849), the daughter of 
William Lee and niece of Judge Thomas Lee, was born 
in Charleston, S. C. She began to write for The South- 
ern Eose at about twenty, and soon attracted attention. 
Among her earlier productions was Social Evenings or 
Historical Tales for Youth, for which she received a 
prize from the Massachusetts Board of Education. She 
was a frequent contributor to various periodicals, among 
them Graham's Magazine, Godey's Lady's Book, and 
the Southern Literary Messenger. A number of grace- 
ful translations fro'm the German also came from her 
pen. Her Poetical Remains, with a memoir by S. Gil- 
man, D. D., were published in 1851 (Charleston). The 
best known of her poetical pieces is thought to be "The 
Blind E^egro Communicant." 

See Southern Quarterly Review, XIX., 518; AUi- 
bone, L, 1075; Stockbridge, 143; Trent, 131. 

Hew Ainslie (1792-1878) was a native of Bargeny 
Mains, Ayrshire, Scotland. He was educated in his own 
country, and acted as amanuensis for a time to Professor 
Dugald Stewart, the philosopher. He emigrated to 
America in 1822 and settled in Xew York State, and 



.©» 



C. 



100 On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

later in Kentucky, Indiana, and New Jersey. He en- 
gaged in business of various kinds, but seems to have 
been unfortunate. His death occurred in Louisville, 
Kentucky. 

His best-known book is '"A Pilgrhnage to the Land of 
Burns'^ (1820), a narrative embodying a number of 
sparkling lyrics. A collection of his Scottish Songs, Bal- 
lads, and Ppems, edited by William Wilson, was pub- 
lished in 1855 (Kew York). In 1864 he visited Scotland 
and received evidences of esteem and friendship from 
many literary men. His best-known poems are " The 
Ingle Side,"^^'On wi' the Tartan!" and ^^The Rover of 
Loch Ryan." He had a unique claim to distinction in the 
fact that he once kissed Bonnie »Iean, the wife of Robert 
Burns. 

See Duyckinck, II., 160; Stockbridge, 4; Appleton, 
L, 37. 

William J. Grayson (1788-1863} was born at Beau- 
fort, South Carolina. He moved to Charleston, and be-^ 
came prominent as a lawyer and politician, being elected 
a member of Congress, appointed collector of the port 
of Charleston, etc. 

Among his works are: 

A Life of James L. Petigru. 

Letters of Curtius. Charleston, 1851. 

The Hireling and the Slave: A Didactic Poem. 
Charleston, 1854. "In this poem we find a comparison 
drawn between the condition of the negro slave and the 
pauper laborer of Europe." — Allibone. 

Chicora and Other Poems. 1856. 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. lOl 

The Country: A Poem. 1858. 
Marion: A Narrative Poem,. 1860. 
For other details, see Duyckinck, II., 103; Allibone 
Supplement, 707; Appleton, IL, 733. 

Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830-1886) was born in 
Charleston, South Carolina. His father was Lieutenant 
Hayne, a naval officer, who died at sea when his son was 
an infant. His ancestry was English, his progenitors 
having emigrated from Shropshire and settled in 
Charleston in early colonial days. The family rose to 
be of importance in civil affairs of the State, and were 
ardent patriots during the Revolution. Robert Y. 
Hayne, the celebrated orator and statesman. Governor 
of South Carolina and United States Senator, was Paul 
Hayne's uncle. Graduating at the College of Charles- 
ton in 1850, Paul Hayne studied law, but soon relin- 
quished it for the pursuit of literature. In 1852 he mar- 
ried ]\iiss Mary Middleton Michel, whose father was sig- 
nally honored by Napoleon III., of France, for his ser- 
vices in the army of Napoleon I. Hayne came within 
the ''Charleston group," of which William Gilmore 
Simms was the acknowledged head, and was consider- 
ably influenced thereby. Simms delighted to collect 
about him the younger literary men of the section, and 
in this way Hayne was thrown with the spirits that were 
naturally the most congenial to his nature. He had had 
some journalistic experience as an assistant to W. C. 
Richards on the Southern Literary Gazette, sl weekly 
published in Charleston in the early '50's, and also as 



102 On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

associate editor of the Spectator, a Washington weekly, 
so when it was proposed to establish a magazine in 
Charleston, llayne was made one of the editors. Rus- 
selfs began in April, 1857,. and continued about four 
years, and is said to have been the best publication of 
the kind ever undertaken in Charleston. He had early 
become a contributor to the Southern Literary Messen- 
ger ^ and was also cpnnected with the Charleston Evening 
News. With all his work as editor, however, he found 
time to write enough poetry to fill three volumes before 
18 GO. Then came the war and its reverses, llayne was 
incapacitated by delicate health for field service, so he 
was appointed an aide on the stafl: of General Pickens. 
During the bombardment of Charleston his home and 
library were burned, and when the war was over he 
found himself practically destitute. He then built him, 
a little home in the "Pine Barrens" of Georgia, near 
Augusta, and lived happily in close comniunion with 
nature and devoted himself to writing. Here at "Copse 
Hill" some of his best work was done, and the place 
became widely known as the home of the foremost living 
Southern poet. His health had never been vigorous, but 
he worked steadily and lived to see the publication of his 
collected poems in an illustrated edition. He died in 
1886, and was buried at Augusta. 

His works appeared in the following order: 

Poems. 10°, ])p. 108. Boston, 1855. 

Sonnets and Other Poems. 1857. 

Avol'io: A Legend of the Island of Cos, w'lih Poems 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 103 

Lyrical, MisceUa neons, and Dramatic. 12°, viii., pp. 
244. Boston, 1860. 

Legends and Lyrics. 12°. Philadelphia, 1872. 

Edited Henry Timrod's Poems and wrote a Memoir 
of that poet. New York, 18Y3. 

Tlie Mountain of the Trovers: with Poems of Nature 
and Tradition. 12°. :New York, 1875. 

Life of Robert Y. Ilayne and Life of Hugh S. Legare. 
1878. 

Poems. Complete Edition. 8°, pp. 386. Boston, 
1882. 

The amount of Hayne's work entitles him to rank as 

one of the Soiith's major poets, even had he a less clear 
claim to such a title. The '^Complete Edition" has nearly 
four hundred pages, but it is complete probably only in 
the sense that it includes what the poet considered his 
best work, for at least one "legend" that formed the title 
poem of an early volume is omitted. " We can hardly 
think that the twenty-one pages given to "Youthful 
Poems, 1850-1860," are sufficient to contain all that 
were in three volumes published before the war; in fact, 
a glance at the bibliography will show that a large por- 
tion must have been included under other heads, which 
are "Sonnets," "Dramatic Sketches," "Poems of the 
War, 1861-1865," "Legends and Lyrics, 1865-1872," 
"Later Poems," "Humorous Poems," and "Poems for 
(^hildreu." So far as indicated, however, the "Youth- 
ful Poems" are all of his ante-bellum work that Hayne 
himself thought worthy to be preserved. ThesC' repre- 
sent but a small portion of the book, and hence the poet 



104 On Southern Poeinj Prior lo 1S60. 

j)roperly belongs to a period beyond that with which we 
have to do. But as this early work shows the bent of 
his mind, it deserves for that reason passing attention, 
if nothing more. 

The themes selected indicate considerable range even 
as a youthful poet, yet in later years many others were 
added. Xatnre, love, art ideals, passion, soul conflict, 
death, are among the subjects included. A variety of 
verse forms are em]doyed, rhymed couplet, alternate 
rhyme, and in the longer and more sonorous pieces, blank 
verse. The methods of treatment, especially in the na- 
ture jwems, betray a Wordsworthian influence, and occa- 
sionally a Browning note is struck, but these are not 
strong enough to offset Hayne's own personality. 

Of the poems in this group the best appear to be the 
Song beginning, ''Ho! fetch me the wine cup," ''Lethe," 
''The Island in the South," the "Ode delivered on the 
First Anniversary of the Carolina Art Association," 
"Mature, the Consoler," in which occur the lines: 

" The universe of God is still, not dumb, 
For many voices in sweet undertone 
To reverent listeners come." 

"Lines" (suggested by a quotation from "Paracelsus"), 
"Under Sentence," and "The Village Beauty." 

For fuller details of life, etc., see Rutherford, 360; 
Link's Pioneers of Southern Literature, 43 sq.; Manly, 
34r,; Warner Library, XVTTL, 7110; Trent's Simms, 
288 s(i., rt passim; Duyckinck, IL, 722; Allibone, L, 
808, and Sui)pl., II., 79."); Api)]('t()n, II., 144; Richard- 
son, FT., 230 sq.; Sidney Lanier's Letters, i)p. 219-245 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 105 

(deals with Legends and Lyrics of 18Y2); Pancoast, 256^ 
and the biographical sketch by Mrs. Margaret J. Preston 
prefixed to the Complete Edition of 1882. 

Alexander Beaufoet Meek (1814-1865) was born at 
Columbia, South Carolina. He graduated at the Uni- 
versity of Alabama in 183 3, and was admitted to the 
bar at Tuscaloosa in 1835. After serving as lieutenant 
of volunteers in the Seminole War he returned and was 
appointed Attorney-General of Alabama, but soon re- 
signed and resumed his practice. In 1842-'44 he was 
Judge of the County Court; was editor of the 'Mohile 
Register 1 848-' 5 2, and in 1853 was a member of the 
Legislature, and became the father of the public school 
system of the State. In 1856 he was a presidential elec- 
tor on the Democratic ticket, and in 1859 a member of 
the Legislature again and Speaker of the ILouse. He 
died at Columbus, Mississippi, in 1865. 

In 1842 he published A Supplement to Aiken^s Digest 
of the Laws of Alabama, 1836-'Jfl; in 1855, The Red 
Eagle: A Poem of the South (New York); in 1857, 
Romantic Passages in Southiuestern History, including 
Orations, Sketches, and Essays, and also Songs and 
Poems of the South (ISTew York and Mobile). In addi- 
tion he was one of the valued contributors to the Magno- 
lia Magazine (1842), Simms^s Magazine, and the 
Southern Quarterly Revieiv. He seems to have pub- 
lished in 1845 a poem called The Croalcers in Washing- 
ton, from which he includes selections in a subsequent 
A'Olume (Songs and Poems of the South). 
M 



100 On Southern Podnj Prior to 1S60. 

The volume entitled Songs and Poems of ihe South 
was published in 1857, and went through at least three 
editions in the same year. It contains many short poems 
on various subjects, and two long poems, ^'The Day of 
Freedom," a composition ^'pronounced" at Tuscaloosa 
nearly twenty years before^ and ''The Nuptial Fete," 
written about March^ 1841. 

Excepting interspersed short poems, "The Day of 
Freedom" is written in blank verse, and is the only piece 
in the entire collection where this form is used. Rhymed 
couplets, alternate rli^^me, and other schemes are em- 
ployed, but there is always rhyme, which evidently in 
the author's mind constitutes a well-nigh indispensable 
characteristic of poetry. Consequently many of the 
verses are rhymes and but little more. 

"The Mocking Bird" (in Songs of the South) has a 
lilt and melody found in few other poems on that favor- 
ite subject, and is, we think, one of the best short poems 
in the whole book. "Balaklava" (in Poems of the South) 
compares favorably in movement with James Barron 
Hope's on the same theme, but several of the rhymes are 
objectionable. 

"The Day of Freedom" is patriotic (and political) in 
tone and expresses the sentiments common to Fourth of 
July effusions. It contains a national anthem full of 
spirit and love of freedom, j' 

" The Nuj)tial Fete," whicli is termed "an irregidar 
poem," shows c()nsid(n'abl(^ skill in narration and. de- 
scription. 'I'hc movement throughout is rapid, though' 
there are occasional digressions like the one on cham- 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 107 

pagne. The descriptions are generally trne and evidence 
the poet's keen observing powers. "The Bridal Song'' 
is nearly equal in excellence to "The Mocking Bird." 

The poet deals with many themes^ but principally 
those of voliiptnons love and Inxnriant nature. His 
flow of words is abundant and rapid, and the verses are 
easy reading. Here and there, however, will be found 
a harsh discord that mars what follows; this usually is 
in the form of a forced play on words in the midst of a 
serious train of thought. 

The author's loyalty to the South is shown not only by 
his poems, but by the very titles, a few of which are: 
"Come to the Soiith," "Girl of the Sunny South," "The 
Rose of Alabama," "The Belle of Mobile," "The Homes 
of Alabama," "The Mothers of the South," "The Rose 
of Charleston," "To a Tair Virginian/' "Bird of the 
South," "To a Dark-Eyed Georgian," and "Land of the 
South." The deaths of great men impress him strongly; 
there is a dirge for Henry Clay, an ode in memory of 
Webster, and a poem on the death of Jackson. 

Taken altogether. Songs and Poems of the South cer- 
tainly manifest a poetic talent, but, following romantic 
models, and Byron probably in particular, they also 
manifest a lack of control. Yet several of them are very 
creditable, and are worthy of the New as well as the 
Old South. 

Tor biographical d'etails and meagre quotations, see 
Allib9ne, IT., 1260; Griswold, 537; Manly, 301; Stock- 
bridge, 168; Appleton, lY., 286. 

James Baeeon HorE (1829-1887) w^as born at the 



108 On Southern Poetry Prior to 1800. 

home of his grandfather, Commodore James Barron, who 
at the time was residing as commander at the Gosport 
ISTavy Yard. His mother was Jane Barron and his father 
was Wilton Hope, of ''Bethel," Elizabeth City county. 
His early education w^as obtained at Germantown, Penn- 
sylvania, and at the "Academy" of Hampton, Virginia, 
under John B. Cary, Esq. In 1847 he took his Bachelor 
of Arts degree at the College of William and Mary. For 
a time he acted as secretary to his uncle. Captain Samuel 
Barron, of the man-of-war ''Pennsylvania," but later 
was transferred to the "Cyane," and in 1852 made a 
cruise to the West Indies. In 1856 he was Common- 
Avealth's Attorney at Hampton, and the follow^ing year 
he married Miss Annie Beverly Whiting, the union 
proving to be a very happy one. He had become w^ell 
known as a poet, having contributed to several period,i- 
cals, especially the Southern Literary Messenger ^ under 
the pseudonym "Henry Ellen," and in 1857 the Lippin- 
cotts of Philadelphia published for him a volume of 
poems entitled Leoni di Monota and Other Poems. 
These were^ very favorably received, and in particular 
"The Charge at Balaklava." On May 13, 1857, he was 
the poet of the Celebration of the 250th Anniversary of 
the Settlement at Jamestown, and on February 22d of 
the following year he took ])art in the exercises attend- 
ing the Unveiling of the (^rawford Monument to Wash- 
ington in the Capitol Square at Pichmond. A few 
months later the poems then recited and some others 
were published. He served as captain and quartermaster 
during the war, and made an honorable record for him- 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 109 

self. When the war closed, however, he did not return 
to his native town or to his profession of law, but went 
to ]N'orfolk and became a journalist. He was connected 
with the Day Booh, the Virginian, and the Landmarh, 
and it was due largely to his personality that the last 
named acquired its wide influence in the State. He was 
invited by a special committee from Congress to be the 
poet of the Yorktown Celebration in 1881, and in 1882 
the metrical address delivered on that occasion, ^^Arms 
and the Man," with some sonnets, was published. He 
was invited to read an ode at the laying of the corner- 
stone of the monument to General Eobert E. Lee at 
Eichmond in October, 1887, and having accepted the 
invitation had just finished the ode a few days when he 
died, September 15, 1887. It was sent, however, and 
read by a friend at the ceremonies, which took place 
about a month later. Besides the odes mentioned, he 
delivered a number of others at various public celebra- 
tions, especially when monuments were raised to the 
Confederates, and gained the name of '^bard of the Con- 
federate soldier." He was buried at E^orfolk. 

"The Charge at Balaklava" differs from Tennyson's 
poem on the same theme in several respects. In the 
first place, it is more than twice as long, counting lines; 
it takes up the action at an earlier stage than Tennyson's, 
and includes the preparation of the men, their thoughts 
and feelings when the order came to charge; then the 
death ride forward; and, finally, reflections on the hor- 
ror and sublimity of the charge. The stanzas are of 
uniform length, and, unlike Tennyson's, are not de- 



1 10 (Jn ."^oiiHiciii Foeiry Prior io ISOO. 

signed to indicate by their form the advance and retreat 
of tlie Six Hnndrod. 'J1ic measure is tetrameter 
throughout, while tliat in' Tennyson's lines varies from 
dimeter to trimeter, ^vhi(*h gives a movement not found 
in the Southern poem. Yet with these essential differ- 
ences, it compares fayorably with Tennyson's in 
strength, and evidences- an unusually keen poetic sense. 
The unveiling of the Washington statue at Kichmond 
in 1858 gave the young poet ample opportunity for the 
glorification of the great Virginian and the State in 
which he lived. The verse, abounding in concrete 
imagery, flows steadily on in rhymed couplets. Here 
the poet has expressed fully the intense patriotism and 
State pride Avhich characterized his personality. 

The Jamestown Ode, wantten the i)revious year, is 
similar in style, but Lacks the strength of the Washing- 
ton Ode. 

Of his later and best work, most of which was in- 
spired by the war, the Lee Memorial Ode'perhaps marks 
the highest point reached. 

The ease with which nearly all the poems flow, the 
apparent lack of effort, is •one of their most striking 
characteristics. Some one has spoken of them as ''a 
living succession of concrete images and pictures." 

l>,esidos the poems, the author published Little Stories 
for LiUIr PcopJe. Macldou (a novel), and several ad- 
dresses, including Virginia— Her Past, Present, and 
Fviure, and The Press and the Printer's Devd. 

For a sketch of life, etc., see A Wreath of Virginm 
lUni Leaves: Poems hij James Barron Jfope. Selected 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. Ill 

and Edited by His DaugJiter, Janey Hope Marr. (Ricli- 
mond, 1895.) Also^ article in Conservative Review, 
March, 1900, by same author. Appleton, III., 253, in- 
cludes one title not in Mrs. Marr's sketch — viz.. Elegiac 
Ode and Other Poems (l^orfolk, 1875); see, also, Alli- 
bone SuppL, II., 848. 

John Reuben Thompson (1823-1873) was born in 
Richmond, Virginia. From August, 1836, to about 
July, 1837, he attended a preparatory school in East 
Haven, Connecticut, it probably being intended that he 
should eventually enter Yale College. In September, 
1840, however, he matriculated at the University of 
Virginia in Latin, Mathematics, and Natural Philoso- 
phy; in 1841 he took Modern Languages, Chemistry, and 
Mathematics, and graduated in Chemistry at the end of 
the session. After this he seems to have been out two 
years, and returned to the University in 1844 to take 
Law, in which he graduated in 1845. Lie began practice 
in Richmond, but soon gave it up, and in 1847 became 
editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, a position he 
held for twelve years. In 1854 he sailed for Europe 
with a government appointment, returning in 1855, The 
next year he delivered ''Virginia'^ before the Phi Beta 
Kappa Society of William and Mary College, and at 
the unveiling of the Crawford statue of Washington in 
Richmond in 1858 he read an ode. On account of delicate 
health, his connection with the Southern Literary Mes- 
senger as editor ceased with the number for May, 1860, 
and George W. Bagby became his successor. In 1860 
he was in Augusta, Georgia, editing the Southern Field 



1 \-2 On Soidhcni Poetry Prior io 1860. 

and Fireside. His health ap])ears to have been improved 
b^his sojourn in the South, for in 1861 he was assistant 
librarian of the Virginia State Libi-ary, an assistant of 
Governor Letcher, and correspondent of the Memphis 
Appeal and the London Index (the Confederate organ 
in England). In 1863 he was in editorial harness again 
on The Record, a short-lived weekly, and made the same 
year a collection of his own and Henry Timrod's poems 
and sent them through the blockade to be published in 
Europe, but the manuscripts were lost. On July 5, 
1864, he left Wilmington in company with Alexander 
Collie for England, but, sent by the medical advice of 
Dr. Beverly Wellford, he broke his trip and remained 
some time at Havana. Arriving in London, he became 
associated with several papers — the Index, the Stand- 
ard, and the Herald — and wrote in the interest of the 
Confederacy. LTere he remained, contributing in 186^ 
to Blackwood's Magazine in addition to the newspapers, 
until 1866, when he returned to America and continued 
his work as a journalist, becoming connected with 
Every Afternoon, an unsuccessful venture by AVilliam 
Young, and with the New Yorlc Evening Post, first as 
reviewer and later as literary editor. On July 4, 1869, 
he read a poem before the alumni of the University of 
Virginia, and on the organization of the l^ew York 
branch of the Alumni Association in 1870 he was elected 
'its secretary. His health wjt^ again failing, and in the 
lio])o of vccelxiiig benefit from t1io ]\\]vc atmosphere he 
went in March, 1873, to Denver, Colorado. This trip 
did not accomplish the desired end, however, for he re- 



On Southern Poetry Pi;ior to 1860. 113 

turned and died April 30th. The remains were interred 
in Hollywood Cemetery, Kichmond, Virginia. 

Such is a meagre outline of the main facts of the life 
of a man who did much for the literature of the South 
as the editor of its most influential literary journal and 
as a writer of no mean talents and accomplishments. A 
detailed biography remains to be written; it would be 
out of j)lace here, even were the materials at hand. ^ 

He seems to have been singularly unfortunate- with 
regard to his collected works. We are told that a num- 
ber of the papers contributed to the Southern Literary 
Messenger were collected and published in book form, 
but all except one copy which the publishers had sent to 
him were burned,^' and, as noted above, the collection of 
kis own and Timrod's poems was lost during the time of 
the war blockade, f 

Thompson lisped in numbers, for the numbers came 
early, his first poem, of which a copy has been preserved, 
being three stanzas ^'To Tanny,'' which he wrote at the 
age of thirteen. Like most juvenile attempts, it is more 
jingle than anything else, but it shows a good ear for the 
measured flow of words. Among his other early poems 
are ^'To S. P. Q. on Her Marriage" (1838), ^^Despond- 
ency" and ^Tines on the Death of General Harrison" 

*Appleton, VI., 92. 

t Through the courtesy of Dr. C. W. Kent, of the University 
of Virginia, to whom has been intrusted the task of preparing 
an edition of Thompson's poems, we have been able to read a 
number of the poems in manuscript and to secure the above 
outline of a biography which will doubtless be filled in when 
the proposed edition is published. 
15 



1 U On Suuthcni Fodnj Prior to 1800. 

(1841), ''The Barber Boy to the'Patrons of the Exchange 
Dressing Room" (1844), ^'Toast to Webster' (1847), 
*'To Miss Amelie Lonise Bives on Her Departure for 
France" (1849), ''On the Death of P. P. Cooke" and 
''Dirge for the Fiinei-al Solemnities of General Zachary 
Taylor" (1850), and "The Window Panes at Brandon," 
written probably between 1840 and 1850. As a rule, 
these are immature and exhibit few striking qualities, 
though at least one exception may be made, ''The Win- 
dow Panes at Brandon." "ITi)on the window panes at 
Brandon, on James river, are inscribed the names, cut 
with a diamond, of many of those who composed the 
Christmas and May ])arties of that hospitable mansion 
in years gone by." With this as a theme the poet suc- 
ceeded admirably. The tone throughout is serious and 
reflective, for on ])anes of glass — 

"How uncertain the record! the hand of a child 

In its innocent sport, unawares, 
May,, at any time, lucklessly shatter the pane, 

And thus cancel the story it bears: 
Still a portion, at least, shall uninjured remain — 

Unto trustier tablets consigned — 
The fond names that survive in the memory of friends 

Who yet linger a season behind. 

" Recollect, O young soul, with ambition inspired! — 

Let the moral be read as we pass — 
Recollect, the illusory tablets of fame 

Have been ever as brittle as glass; 
Oh! then, be not content with the name there inscribed, 

For as well may you trace it in dust; 
But resolve to record it, where long it shall stand, 

In the hearts of the good and the just." 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 115 

Among liis productions of the next ten years are sev- 
eral poems of decided merit, which show increasing 
poetical skill and his own personality. ^'A Picture" of 
a little school-girl is as delicately cut as a cameo: 

" An hour or so and forth she goes, 
The school she brightly seeks, 
She carries in her hand a rose 
And two upon her cheeks." 

''In forma Pauperis" describes a lowly funeral in 
Paris, and gives full play to the tenderness of the poet's 
nature. Pitiable is the sorrow of the little French girl 
when her mother is put away ''in a trench, not a grave," 
in the cemetery of Pere la Chaise. 

But probably the longest and most ambitious poem 
Thompson wrote was the Opening Ode for the Inaugu- ^'^ 
ration of Crawford's Equestrian Statue of Washington 
at Richmond, February 22, 1858. It is divided into 
four parts — I. The exordium. Addressed to the Vir- 
ginians assembled; recounts the glories of the day, the 
booming of cannon, the waving of banners. Written in 
alternate rhyme, iambic-pentameter and trimeter. II. 
The debate of the Arts as to who should be entrusted 
with the apotheosis of the hero; two mortals are elected; 
Everett's lips are touched with fire by Eloquence — 

" While the voiceless Muse of Sculpture, white and shining, 
raised her wand, 
And a yet more wondrous cunning straightway thrilled 
through Crawford's hand." 

The model is formed in Crawford's Roman workshop; 
borne beyond the Alps; and cast in bronze at Munich. 



ll(i On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

The journey of the statue through the pleasant Rhine- 
hmcl to the Zuyder Zee; men of every nation cheer it 
on, because Washington, like Eienzi, Tell, Hampden, 
and AVilliam of Holland, \vas a leader for human lil> 
erty. Xow it is for us to pay homage to Washington, 
and, in passing, for the poet to pay a tribute to the 
sculptor whose hand death had stilled; his fame ^'blended 
in the bronze above us, with earth's proudest, grandest 
name." Trochaic octameter, rhymed couplets. III. 
Apostrophe to the statue and to what it represents. 
Stanzas of four lines — iambic-trimeter, two iambic-pen- 
tameter, iambic-trimeter, rhyming abba. IV. Con- 
clusion. Appeal to the people to renew their patriot 
vows to their country ever due. Wherever Law and 
Learning reign, wherever men shall revere the name of 
Socrates, wherever the sacred ark shall be borne in 
Freedom's bark freighted with the truths of Luther and 
the creed of Christ, there Washington shall live, and 
Virginia's name shall be praised. Iambic-pentameter 
rhymed couplets. 

The ode is well sustained, and though not so well 
known, perhaps, as some of the later war poems, marks 
the highest point probably in all of Thompson's poetry, 
certainly in his ante-bellum poetry. 

In the lines written for the first celebration of the 
Old Dominion Society at New York on the anniversary 
of the settlement at elamestown, May 15, 1860, are 
found two prominent characteristics of our poet's mind — 
humor and cleverness. He had a finie talent for turning 
a pun and for seeing the weaker side of things. On the 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 117 

occasion mentioned lie was absent, but that fact only 
served as the subject of a stanza. 

" Then, brothers of the good old State, 

Permit an absent rhymer 
To pledge the day you celebrate, 

But not in Rudesheimer; 
He likes, whatever others think, 

Virginia's own libation, 
A whiskey julep is the drink 

That typifies the nation!" 

In a poem read some nine years later at a Fourth of 
July dinner of the Alumni of the University of Virginia, 
these same characteristics are seen to good advantage in 
the numerous local hits and take-offs. 

His war lyrics made him very popular in the South. 
The best known are '^The Burial of Latane/' ^'Music in 
Camp/^ ^'Ashby/' ^^General J. E. B. Stuart/^ ^Tee to 
the Rear/' and ^^Joe Johnston." Another well-known 
poem is "A Local Item'^ (Harper's Weekly, February 
1, 1868), which tells of the death of a little wandering 
musician on the door-step of a mansion in which a 
society ball was going on. It has a deep pathos and 
tenderness that go right to the heart. 

In addition to the poems already mentioned, he made 
metrical translations from both French and German, 
and seems to have been influenced particularly by the 
musical qualities of the French language. He frequently 
employed French phrases and sometimes introduced 
into a poem a whole line from that language. 
■^ As already stated, no collected edition of Thompson's 
poetry has yet been published. We think, however, that 



US On SouHirr)) Popfri/ J'rior to 1860. 

the qualities pointed out in the poems cited will be 
found the ones that are most common in all of his poeti- 
cal woAk, wliich was comparatively a small part of the 
products of his versatility.- 

To sum up briefl3% tlieu, his j)oetical work after 1850, 
when he had had the advantage of editorial experience, 
was much superioi* to that which preceded, and, with a 
few exceptions, that which ho wrote between 1850 and 
1860 was inferior iu popularity, if not in poetic quality, 
to that which he wrote during and after the war. The 
most conspicuous qualities of all his work are humor, 
deep tenderness and pathos, and sincerity. \ He shows 
the least effort in his treatment of light themes, and in 
them also his cleverness is most apparent. When his 
poetry is brought together and opportunity given for a 
public estimate, his place, we think, will be alongside of 
Tirnrod and JTayne. 

This partial study of Thompson has considered him 
almost exclusively as a poet. His versatility, as already 
hinted, extended in many directions, but it cannot be 
traced out here. It may be sufficient, therefore, to con- 
clude our remarks with a quotation from an editorial 
from the Southern Literary Messenger for June, 1860. 
Speaking of Thompson's former connection with that 
journal, it says: '^The unknown aspirant for literary 
honors in 1847 leaves the Messenger in 1860 a man dis- 
tinguished in every part of the Confederacy, in the 
^"ortli scarcely less than in the South, as a poet, a 
scholar, a lecturer, an editor." 

Vov nijiiiy of the poems, see the files of the Soidhcrn 



Oil Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 119 

Literary Messenger; for meagre accounts of life, see 
Appleton, YI., 92; Manly, 317; a few of the war poems 
may be found in Miss Mason's Southern Poems of the 
War; see, also, Duyckinck, II., 713; Allibone, III., 
2393. 

David Hakdy, Je. (1829-1857) was born in West- 
minster, Vermont. His father, while David, was still a 
boy, moved to Hancock, 'New Hampshire, and later to 
Preble, Cortland county, New York. David attended 
Cortland Academy at Homer, New York, graduating in 
1854. After teaching in the English department of his 
Alma Mater, he was appointed principal of the Prepara- 
tory Department of Bethel College, Russellville, Ken- 
tucky, in 1856. The people of Pussellville gave him a 
cordial welcome, and he made many friends. His dis- 
position was tender and loving. He was naturally medi- 
tative and keenly sensitive to impressions. The death 
of a favorite sister affected him deeply, and when his 
promised bride, too, was taken, the burden of sorrow 
served to intensify his religious nature and make him 
take life more seriously than ever. At the close of the 
first session he went back to his old home to spend his 
vacation, returning to Russellville in the fall. But he 
did not long survive his loved ones. Only a few weeks 
after the college opened, in October, 1857, his last ill- 
ness came and he passed away to join those who had 
gone on before. 

The next year a small volume of his Poems (New 
York, 1858) was published. This contained many poems 
on the months of the year, nature scenes, love, and 



U^O On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

other subjects. Most of them are short and indicate a 
light poetic fancy and a talent for rhymed verses, but 
few contain anything striking. The longest is '^Genius," 
a tribute to the power of mind for progress and civili- 
zation and the great problems of the world. It seems to 
have been Avritten under the influence of Pope's works, 
and is fairly creditable to a young poet. 

A gentleness of spirit, with an occasional touch of 
humor, pervades the volume and gives Hardy a respec- 
table place among the minor rhymers. 

(teoj?ge Dexison Pkentice (1802-1870) was born in 
Preston, ronnecticut. Gradiiated at Brown University 
in 1823, and in 1828 established the New England 
WeeMy Review at Hartford, Connecticut. This he con- 
ducted for two years, and then went West, becoming 
editor of the Loiiisville Journal. His contributions to 
this paper extended over many years, and included many 
poems. He was generally regarded as one of the bright- 
est lights of the journalistic profession. His death oc- 
curred in Louisville in 1870. 

Among his works are a Z^tfe of Henry Clay; Preri- 
ticeana^ or Wit and Humor in Paragraphs (iirst edition 
18()0; revised edition, with memoir, 1870); and Poems. 
Edited hy John James Piatt. Cincinnati, 1870. Soon 
after his death, Hon. Henry AVatterson, his successor 
as editor of the Conrier-Journal, delivered an apprecia- 
tive memorial address. 

Many of his poems have been often printed in the 
newspapers, and one in ])articul;)r has gained a wide and 
lasting fame. "'Jlie Closing Year," with Remorseless 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 121 

Time as its theme, is one of the finest ever written on 
that well-worn subject. The serious, solemn thought 
in its garb of blank verse marches impressively on from 
beginning to end, and the reader perforce stops to reflect 
on the seriousness of life. This single poem is sufli- 
cient to give the writer a creditable place among the 
poets of his country. 

Cf. Manly, 228; Alden, Vol. XYL; S. & H., YL, 
112; Griswold, 27Y; Duyckinck, IL, 400. 

The story of the life of Henry Timrod (1829-1867), 
son of William H., is a sad one. Born of mixed descent 
in Charleston, S. C, he received his primary education 
at one of the best schools in his native place. There he 
formed the friendship mth Paul Hayne that was des- 
tined to be life-long. They sat near each other in the 
school-room, and one morning when Timrod was show- 
ing his earliest attempt at ballad making, and both 
were enjoying it as only boys can, the ^ ^down-east'' 
school-master, who saw them hobnobbing, says Hayne, 
'^meanly assaulted us in the rear." This put an end to 
the poetic enthusiasm for the time being. When he was 
about sixteen or seventeen Timrod went to the Univer- 
sity of Georgia, and while there devoted much of his 
attention to the classics and wrote many verses, some 
of which were published in The Charleston News, to 
their author's great delight. Owing both to ill-health 
and poverty he did not finish his course at the university. 
On his return to Charleston, his health having been re- 
covered somewhat, he began the study of law in the 

office of Hon. James L. Petigru, the well-known jurist. 
i6 



122 On Southern Poetry Prior to 18G0. 

binding such work wliully uiicougeiiial, he soon aban- 
doned law, and prepared himself to teach. iS^ot being 
able to secure a position in a college, he accepted a posi- 
tion as tutor in the family of a Carolina planter, and 
continued with him for several consecutive seasons. He 
went on teaching during the next ten or twelve years, 
varying the monotony of such a life by visits to his 
friends at Charleston, where he was always cordially 
received by them. Among these was William Gilmore 
Simms, who delighted to gather round him the younger 
literary men at informal little suppers. It was at one 
of these that the idea was suggested of starting a maga- 
zine for the expression of Southern sentiment and opin- 
ion. Mr. John Russell, a popular book-seller of Charles- 
ton, Avas persuaded to take the enterprise in hand, so 
the venture was named BiisseWs Magazine. Hayne was 
selected as its editor and Timrod and others were con- 
tributors, some of Timrod's best work thus first making 
its way to the public. The magazine, however, was 
short-lived, owing to lack of support. Under the pseu- 
donym of Aglaus, Timrod had contributed a number of 
his earlier poems to TJie So2it]ic}-n Literary Messenger^ 
particularly during the period from 1849 to 1853. 
Some of these represent the best of his early work. One 
piece especially, ^^Tlie Past," received very favorable 
comment in the North. At this time he seems to have 
been considerably influenced by Wordsworth as a model. 
The first edition of his Poems was publislied by Tick- 
nor Sl yields (Boston) in 1800. This was made up 
mainly of the poems he had written during the eight or 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 123 

nine years immediately preceding. But the date at 
wliicli it appeared was an inauspicious time for tlie re- 
ception of a new singer. War clouds were becoming 
ominously dark and threatening; public attention was 
almost exclusively monopolized with watching the ap- 
proach of the irrepressible conflict^ so that the volume 
fell almost dead from the press. It came, however, into 
a few discerning hands, both ISTorth and South, who re- 
cognized its worth. A critic in llie Neiv York Tribune 
wrote of it: "These poems are worthy of a wide audi- 
ence. They form a welcome offering to the common 
literature of our country. The author, whose name 
promises to be better known from this specimen of his 
powers, betrays a genuine poetic instinct in the selec- 
tion of his themes, and has treated them with a lively, 
delicate fancy and a graceful beauty of expression.'' 
The longest and most elaborate poem in the book was 
"A Vision of Poesy," in which Timrod sets forth his 
poetic creed. It is the story of a boy born with the 
poetic faculty; of his development mentally and spiritu- 
ally; of his awakening to the mission of a poet, and his 
ultimate failure in impressing the world, and of his last 
sad days and death. Here and there are striking pas- 
sages, some of them exceptionally fine, but as a whole 
the poem is hardly sustained. The two "Parts" are 
written in elegiac verse — six-line stanzas, alternate 
rhyme, the last two lines a rhymed couplet — and the 
transition, appended to "Part I.," in blank verse. 



124 On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

" The Poet owes a high and holy debt, 
Which, if he feel, he craves not to be heard 
For the poor boon of praise, or place, nor yet 

Does the mere joy of song, as with the bird 
Of many voices, prompt the choral lay 
That cheers that gentle pilgrim on his way. 

" Nor may he always sweep the passionate lyre. 
Which is his heart, only for such relief 
As an impatient spirit may desire, 

Lest, from the grave which hides a private grief, 
The spells of song call up some pallid wraith 
To blast or ban a mortal hope or faith. 

" Yet over his deep soul, with all its crowd 
Of varying hopes and fears, he still must brood; 
As from its azure height a tranquil cloud 

Watches its own bright changes in the flood; 
Self-reading, not self-loving — they are twain — 
And sounding, while he mourns, the depths of pain. 

" Thus shall his songs attain the common breast. 
Dyed in his own life's blood, the sign and seal, 

Even as the thorns which are the martyr's crest, 
That do attest his office and appeal 

Unto the universal human heart 

In sanction of his mission and his art. 

" The Poet to the whole wide world belongs, 
Even as the teacher is the child's — I said 

No selfish aim should ever mar his songs, 
But self wears many guises; men may wed 

Self in another, and the soul may be 

Self to its centre, all unconsciously. 

" And therefore must the Poet watch, lest he, 
In the dark struggle of his life, should take 
Stains which he might not notice; he must flee 

Falsehood, however winsome, and forsake 
All for the Truth, assured that Truth alone 
Is Beauty, and can make him all my own. 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 125 

" And he must be an armed warrior strong, 
And he must be as gentle as a girl, 
. And he must front, and sometimes suffer wrong. 
With brow unbent, and lip untaught to curl; 
For wrath, and scorn, and pride, however just, 
Fill the clear spirit's eyes with earthly dust." * 

To this ideal of the poet Timrod strove to attain, and 
the effort he made was a noble one. Amid the struggle 
with poverty and disease that saddened his later years, 
his songs were literally ^^dyed in his own life's blood." 

The 1860 volume is the only one that comes within 
the range of our study. ]SIo other was published until 
1873, six years after his death, when from the press of 
E. J. Hale & Son, ~New York, came "The Poems of 
Henry Timrod, Edited, with a Sketch of the Poefs 
Life, hy Paul H. Hayne'' (16°, pp. 232), of which 
sixty-three pages were occupied with the memoir. A 
second, and possibly a third, edition of this volume ap- 
peared the next year. In 1884 ^^Katie,'' one of the 
poems which it included, was issued in an illustrated 
form. A complete edition of the poems, with several 
hitherto unpublished, was recently published (1899) by 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. (Boston) as a memorial edition, 
under the auspices of the Timrod Memorial Association, 
of South Carolina. In this last an introduction is sub- 
stituted for Havne's excellent memoir. In none of these 
editions, unfortunately, are the dates of all the poems 
designated, so that in the absence of the 1860 volume 
it is impossible to tell which it contained. Hayne says: 
^^Of the minor poems which followed ^The Vision' it 



lL>r> On SoyfJiern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

is iiiniecessary to sj^eak in detail. The ablest of them 
liin"!' 1 (M'li inchidcd in the present edition.'' 

Tlie foljowiiiij,' wci"e irriHru l)eforo 1(S(30, and very 
probably made a part of the 1800 volume: ''The Past," 
^'The Arctic Voyager/' "Praeceptor Amat," and "The 
Phapsody of a Sonthern Winter .Xicht." In the last 
three the inflnence of Tennyson is felt, bnt each pos- 
sesses strength of its own. " Praeceptor Amat" im- 
presses ns as having the lightest touch. On themes 
of love and domestic interest Timrod showed nnnsnal 
sympathy and delicacy of treatment, and this, to 
onr mind, constitntes his purest and sweetest note 
as a singer. "A Year's Courtship," ''The Lily Con- 
fidante," ''Two Portraits," "Our Willie," "Baby's Age," 
" Love's Logic," belong to this class. ''The Cotton 
Boll" has a flavor of the soil, and is perhaps one 
of his best-known poems. The series inspired by 
the war— "Carolina," "A Cry to Arms," "Charles- 
ton," "Ethnogenesis," "The Unknown Dead," and 
others — includes some of his most stirring and popular 
lyrics. The ode sung on the occasion of decorating the 
graves of the (Confederate dead at Magnolia Cemetery, 
C'harleston, South Carolina, 1867, approaches very close 
to j^erfection, and marks the highest point in Timrod's 
poetry. Though it was produced some years after 1800, 
it shall 1)0 quoted: 

Ode. 

Sleep sweetly in your humble grave^, 
Sleep, martyrs of a fallen cause; 

'J'hough yet no marble column craves 
The pilgrim here to pause. 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 127 

In seeds of laurel in the earth 

The blossom of your fame is blown, 

And somewhere, waiting for its birth, 
The shaft is in the stone! 

Meanwhile, behalf the tardy years 

Which keep in trust your storied tombs, 

Behold! your sisters bring their tears, 
And these memorial blooms. 

Small tributes! but your shades will smile 
More proudly on these wreaths to-day, 

Than when some cannon-moulded pile 
Shall overlook this bay. 

Stoop, angels, hither from the skies! 

There is no holier spot of ground 
Than where defeated valor lies, 

By mourning beauty crowned! 

As a sonneteer, Timrod's success was not marked. He 
departed from the accepted forms in his metrical 
schemes, and his choice of themes was not always 
adapted to the sonnet treatment. A large proportion of 
them show the influence of Wordsworth and Tennyson. 
One of the best seems to be the one beginning, ^^Some 
truths there be are better left unsaid." 

The distinctive qualities of the poems in general are 
their moral purity and high seriousness. Themes Avere 
selected with which the 2')oet was in close sympathy, and 
into them he poured his whole soul. Intensely imagi- 
native at times, they have a simplicity and straight- 
forwardness not often found in the work of previous 
poets of his section. He devoted much time to polish- 
ing and perfecting his verses, and, Poe's excepted, his 



128 On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 

arc perhaps open to fewer objections on this score than 
those of anv other Southern poet before 1860. 

Bnt to take up the story of his life again. ISTot long 
after the outbreak of the war he became a correspondent 
for the Charleston Mercury. The harrowing scenes of 
carnage and battle were, however, too much for his sen- 
sitive soul, and he soon gave up this position and re- 
moved to Columbia, becoming part owner and associate 
editor of the South Carolinian. His prospects now 
seemed brighter, and early, in 1864 he married Miss 
Kate Goodwin (''Katie"). In February, 1865, Colum- 
bia w^as sacked and burned by Sherman's army, and with 
it all that Timrod possessed. He was forced then to 
reside with his sister, IMrs. Goodwin, both being very 
much impoverished. The family plate and furniture 
had to be sold for food. His idolized infant son, Willie, 
died in October, 1865, and from this loss Timrod never 
fully recovered. After being long out of employment, 
he finally secured a position on a Charleston paper at a 
mere pittance of a salary. But even this was not paid, 
for the paper did not succeed in its competition against 
older and stronger rivals. He offered some of his best 
poems to Northern periodicals, but they wore declined. 
Times were hard with everybody, and with Timrod and 
his family it was almost a question of starvation. He 
secured a temporary clerkship in the office of Governor 
Orr, but the work was very laborious and the pay very 
small. His health was already beginning to fail, and 
the doctors advised a change of air, so in April, 1867. 
he went to visit liis friend, Paul TTayno, in the humble 



On Southern Poetry Prior to 1860. 129 

country liome that tlie latter Lad improvised near the 
main line of the Georgia Railroad. A month of free life 
among the pine barrens imprc yed him greatly, but on 
his return to Columbia the eld life of want recom- 
menced. He actually suffered for lack of food ! Another 
visit to Hayne in August did not bring back the lost 
health. He writes September 13th of a hemorrhage of 
the lungs, and on the 16th of another. The end was 
approaching, and October 2, 1867, he breathed his last. 
For the best life of Timrod, see the Memoir by Hayne 
in the 1873 edition of Timrod's Poems; also, introduc- 
tion in Memorial Edition (1899); The Southern Review, 
Vol. XYIIL, 35 sq. (July, 1875); The bentury Maga- 
zine, April, 1898; Trent's Simms, 233-35, et passim; 
Pancoast's Introduction to American Literature, 256 
sq. ; Link's Pioneers of Southern Literature, 117;. 
Bruns's Lectures on Timrod (unpublished, but see quo- 
tations in the Hayne Memoir); AUibone, III., 2423. 



17 



SUMMARY. 

It has already been seen that our work has been 
mostly the collection and ordering of material. The 
difficulties of the task liaA'e also been explained at some 
length in the Preface, and it is needless to repeat them. 
With the material at hand we have tried to do the best 
possible under the circumstances. We are thoroughly 
conscious that there are many omissions ; that the work 
done is imperfect and will have to be greatly supple- 
mented by other laborers in this wide field; but we hope 
that what we have done will not be without some value, 
as a time-saver, if nothing more. 

In very many instances the treatment of a poet or 
verse-writer has been biographical as well as critical, but 
usually the biographical details have been condensed and 
stated without attempt at literary style, and at the end 
references have been made to the original sources of our 
information. The criticisms have often been meagre, 
for the obvious reason that the poetry was not accessible 
for a first-hand examination. It has been possible to 
trace but little connection between the poets studied, 
for they have been widely scattered, and, living at dif- 
ferent times, seemed largely independent of one another. 
In general, however, it may Ix? said that during the first 
three or four decades of the nineteenth century the in- 
fluence of Byron, Wordsworth, ;md, in metrical form, 

[130] 



Summary. 131 

Dryden and Pope, was strongly felt by those whose verse 
has been examined. 

It is true that of the poetry produced in the South 
before the Civil War, the amount possessing real merit 
is comparatively small, but that some does possess merit, 
and merit of a high order, is undeniable. The ten- 
dency has been apparently for writers to dogmatize 
without investigation, and say that the Old South gave 
no poetry of value to the world, a statement which we 
hope our work will serve in part, at least, to contradict. 
An anthology containing the best would probably be a 
small volume, as every true anthology must be, but 
much contained therein would be entitled to a very hon- 
orable place in the history of American poetry. 



So eine Arbeit eigentlich nie fertig wird ; ^ ^ man sie fur fertig 
erkldren muss, wenn man nach Zeit und Umstdnden das MogUchste 
dcTran gethan hat. — Goethe. 



APPENDIXES. 



CHEONOLOGY OF POETKY. 

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

1610. *R. Rich. Newes from Virginia. London. Good Speed 

to Virginia (?). Cf. Brown's Genesis, 420. 
1626. *George Sandys. Translation of Ovid. London (?). 
(1630.) *Capt. Jolm Smith. The Sea Marke. Cf. Arber Ed. 

Works, 922. 
1662. *J. Grave. A Song of Sion. Cf. Stockbridge, 104. 
1666. *George Alsop, Stanzas in "A Character of the Province 

of Maryland." London. 
(1676.) *Anon. Bacon's Death, Eulogy, and Execration. Ct. 

Tyler's Amer. Lit, I., 69 sq. 

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 

1708. *Bben Cook, Gent. The Sot-Weed Factor. London. 

1730. *Anon. Sot-Weed Redivivus. Annapolis. 

1771. A Touchstone for the Clergy. To which is added a 
Poem wrote by a Clergyman in Virginia in a Storm 
of Wind and Rain. 

1774. Anon. ("Mary V.") A Dialogue between a Southern 
Delegate and His Spouse. N. p. 
R. Rugeley (?). The Story of Aeneas and Dido Bur- 
lesqued. Charlestown (Charleston?). 

(1775.) *Col. Theodoric Bland. Verses Celebrating the Battle of 
Lexington. Cf. Duyckinck I., 236. 

1777. * James M'Clurg (with St. G. Tucker). Belles of Wil- 
liamsburg. 

1770-1785'. *Revolutionary Songs. 

1786. *Joseph Brown Ladd. Poems of Arouet. Charleston. 

1787. *A. Chatterton. Buds of Beauty. Balto. 

1790. Anon. ("Wm. Durkee.") Hymns and Poems. Balto. 
1792. J. Johnson. The Rape of Bethesda. Charleston. 

* Included in Thesis. 

[135] 



136 Chronology of Poetry . 

1796. ♦St. G. Tucker. The Probationary Odes of Jonathan Pin- 

dar, Esq. Phila. 

1797. Anon. Nugae Canorae. Charleston. 

1798. *Col. Robert Munford. The Candidates, The Patriots, 

and Minor Poems. Petersburg, Va. 
♦William Munford. Poems and Prose. Richmond. 
J. Burk. Female Patriotism, etc. New York. 
1800. C. Love. Death of Gen. George Washington. Alexan- 
dria. 
J. B. Williamson. Preservation, etc. Charleston. 
Anon. Elegies, etc. By a Student of a College in this 
State. Balto. 



NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

1801. Anon. Olio, or Satirical Hodge Podge. Phila. Cf. 
Stockbridge, 185. 

1805. *G. H. Spierin. Poems. Charleston. Cf. Trent's Simms, 

50. 
W. loor. Independence. A Comedy. Charleston. 
♦Mason L. Weems. Hymen's Recruiting Sergeant, etc. 

Phila. 
J. B. White. Foscari, etc. Charleston. 

1806. Mrs. (B.) Allen. Pastorals. Abingdon, Md. 
Anon. The Spirit of the Public Journals. Balto. 

1807. G. Barry. Poems on Several Occasions. Balto. 
Wm. Hill Brown (1766-1793). Ira and Isabella. 

J. Burk. Bethlem Gabor, Lord of Transylvania, etc. 

An Historical Drama. Petersburg. 
*I. Harby. The Gordian Knot. 

1808. J. H. Mills. Poetic Trifles. Balto. 

Anon. Extracts in Prose and Verse. 2 vols. Annapolis. 
J. Burk. Bunker Hill or the Death of Gen. Warren. 

Balto. 
E. Botsford. Sambo and Toney. Georgetown, S. C. 

1809. T. Northmore. Washington, or Liberty Restored. A 

Poem in ten books. Balto. 
Anon. Original Poems by a Citizen of Baltimore. Balto. 

♦Included in Tlicsis. 



Chronology of Poetry. 137 

1810. *John Shaw. Poems by the late Dr. John Shaw. Phila. 
(Balto.?) 

1812. A. Haslett. Original Poems. Balto. 
*Wm. Maxvv^ell. Poems. Phila. 

*Richard Dabney. Poems, Original and Translated. 
Richmond. Same. Revised Edition. Phila. 1815. 

1813. D. Bryan. The Mountain Muse. Harrisonburg, Va. 
Judith Lomax. Notes of an American Lyre. Richmond. 

*Washington Allston. Sylphs of the Seasons and Other 
Poems. London and Boston. 

1814. J. Wharton, M. D. The Virginia Wreath. Winchester. 
*Francis Scott Key. The Star-Spangled Banner. Cf. 

Stockbridge, 277. 
*Edwin C. Holland. Odes, Naval Songs, and Other 

Poems. 
Anon. The Vision of Don Crocker. Balto. 

1815. *R. H. Wilde. "My life is like the summer rose." 

E. Denison. The Lottery. Balto. 

1816. *John M. Harney. Crystalina: A Fairy Tale in six 

cantos. N. Y. 
J. Thomas. A Poetical Descant. Winchester,- Va. The 
Pilgrim's Hymn Book. Winchester. The Pilgrim's 
Muse. Winchester. 

1817. A. Umphraville. The Siege of Baltimore. Balto. 
Anon. The Songs of Zion. Balto, 

1818. Martha Ann Davis. Poems of Laura. Petersburg, Va. 

1819. *W. Crafts. The Sea Serpent, or Gloucester Hoax. 

Charleston. 
I. Harby. Alberti. A Play. Charleston. 
W. Branch. Life. Richmond. 

1820. Anon. ("Harry Nim^rod.") The Fudge Family in Wash- 

ington. Balto. 
W. Crafts. Sullivan's Island. Charleston. 
E. R. Young. One Year in Savannah. Providence. 
Mrs. Botsford. Viola^ etc. Louisville. 

1821. Anon. The Land of Powhatan. Balto. 
W. B. Walter. Sukey. Balto. 

*J. W. Simmons. The Maniac's Confession. Phila. Blue 
Beard. (Canto I.) Phila. 

*Ineluded in Thesis. 
i8 



138 Chronology of Poetry. 

♦John K. Mitchell. St. Helena. By a Yankee. 
*J. N. MafRtt. Tears of Contrition. New London. 

1822. J. W. Simmons. Blue Beard. (Canto II.) Phila. The 

Exile's Return, etc. Phila. 
*A. Burt. The Coronation, etc.; also Sullivan's Island. 
With Notes. Charleston. 

Anon. The Powers of Fancy. Balto. 

Anon. Hymns for the Lutheran Church. Hagerstown. 

S. L. Fairfield. The Siege of Constantinople. Charles- 
ton. 

1823. *E. C. Pinkney. Rodolph. Balto. 

Joseph Doddridge. Logan, a Drama. Buffalo Creek, 

Brooke Co.^ Va. 
S. L. Fairfield. Poems. New York. 

1824. *Lemuel Sawyer. Blackboard. A Comedy. Washington. 

Mathews' Lectures on America. Balto. 

1825. C. Lumsden. Mountain Buds and Blossoms. Peters- 

burg. 
A. Pillsbury. Sacred Songster. 5th ed. Columbia, S. C. 
Anon. The Battle of New Orleans. Balto. 
Anon. The Potomac Muse. Richmond. 
Anon. Virginia, or the Fatal Patient. Washington. 
E. C. Pinkney. Poems. Balto. 
♦Albert A. Muller. Poems. Charleston. 
♦William Gilmore Simms. Monody on Gen. C. C. Pinck- 

ney. Charleston. 
♦S. M. Janney. The Country School House. 
S. L. Fairfield. Mina. Balto. The Sisters of St. Clara. 
Portland. 

1826. Eliza Crawley. Poems. Charleston. 

Mrs. Murden. Poems. Charleston. 2d ed. 1827. 
D. Bryan. Appeal for Suffering Genius. Washington. 
The Day of Gratitude. Phila. 

1827. ♦Edgar A. Poe. Tamerlane and Other Poems. Boston. 

W. G. Simms. Lyrical and Other Poems. Charleston. 
Early Lays. Charleston. 

1828. Mrs. Littlefield. The Wreath. Richmond. (2d edition.) 

♦Included in The.sis. 



Chronology of Poetry. 139 

1829. I. Harby. Selection from his Miscellaneous Writings, 

by H. L. Pinckney and A. Moise. (Charleston?) 
W. G. Simms. The Vision of Cortes, Cain, and Other 

Poems. Charleston. 
Edgar A. Poe. Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. 

Balto. 

1830. D. Bryan. Thoughts, etc. Richmond. 

W. G. Simms. The Tri-Color^ or the Three Days of 
Blood in Paris. With some other pieces. Charleston. 
*G. W. P. Custis. Pocahontas. A National Drama. 
Phila. 

Anon. The Reign of Reform. Balto. 

Anon. The Age of Rhyme. Charleston. 

1831. Edgar A. Poe. Poems. New York. 

A. Burt. Journeyman Weaving. New York. 
T. J. Lees. The Musings of Carol. Wheeling, Va. 
R. Emmons. Defence of Baltimore. Washington. 
Anon. ("Fulkerson, the Eccentric") Howard Hynea, 

etc. Louisville, Ky. 
*Albert Pike. Hymns to the Gods. 

1832. J. N. Maffitt. Literary and Religious Sketches. Poems 

in the volume. New York. 
W. G. Simms. Atalantis: A Story of the Sea. New 

York. 
Frederick Speece. My Native Land^ etc. Lynchburg, 

Va. 
Anon. The Lay of the Last Pilgrim, Charleston. 
*Wm. H. Timrod. "Sons of the Union." Charleston. 
Joseph B. Ladd. Literary Remains. Poems. New York. 

1833. Anon. College Musings, or Twigs from Parnassus. 

Tuscaloosa, Ala. 
Anon. (Thos. J. Semmes?) Poems by a Collegian. 

Charlottesville, Va. 
*Penina Moise. Fancy's Sketch Book. Charleston. 
A. Burt. Poems, Chiefly Satirical. New York. 
*C. C. Pise. Pleasures of Religion and Other Poems. 
Phila. 

♦Included in Thesis. 



140 Chronology of Poetry. 

*F. W. Thomas. The Emigrant, etc. Cincinnati. 
W. Barry more. The Snow Storm, etc. Balto. 

1834. Albert Pike. Prose Sketches and Poems. Boston. 
Lines to the Rocky Mountains (?). Ariel. 
C. L. S. Jones. American Lyrics. Mobile. Translation 

of Voltaire's Henriade. Mobile. 
A. Ganilh. Southern Liberty. New York. 
R. Mack. Kyle Stuart, etc. Columbia, T. 
Anon. Annus Mirabilis. A Satire. University of Va. 
Anon. The House that Old Nick Built. Balto. 
*John C. M'Cabe. Poem in Southern Literary Messen- 
ger (No. 1). 
*Thomas HoUey Chivers. ' Conrad and Eudora. Phila. 
S. G. Bulfinch. Poems. Charleston. 
*George H. Calvert. Translation Don Carlos from Schil- 
ler. Balto. 

J.835. John C. M'Cabe. Scraps. Richmond. 

Anon. The Discovery of America. Richmond. 
Anon. Old Things and New. Balto. 

1836. Anon. The Genius of Erin. Charleston. 

J. C. Newman. The Harmonies of Creation. Balto. 
R. H. Townsend. Rhymes. Balto. 

1837. Anon. The Laurel. Balto. 

Anon. The Age of Humbugs. Wheeling, Va. 
W. M'Jimsey. The Memory of the Sabbath. Balto. 
T. H. Chivers. Nacooche and Other Poems. New York. 
Anon. (J. A. L. Norman?) The Dade Asylum, etc. 

Charleston. 
*Wm. Ross Wallace. The Battle of Tippecanoe. Cinti. 

1838. J. D. Hewett. Miscellaneous Poems. Balto. Flora's 

Festival. 
J. N. M'Jilton. Triumph of Iviberty. Balto. Cf. Poe 

IX., 224. 
A. F. Lyde. Buds of Spring, etc. Boston. 
*L. F. Thomas. Osceola. A Tragedy. New Orleans. 
♦John W. Campbell. Literary Remains (includes nine 
poems). Columbus, Ohio. 

♦Included in Tliesis. 



Chronology of Poetry. 141 

W. H. Carpenter and T. S. Arthur. The Baltimore 

Book. Balto. 
S. J. Cassels. Providence, etc. Macon, Ga. 

1839. W. G. Simms. Southern Passages and Pictures. New 

York. ._ 
Anon. The Wars of America. Balto. 
S. M. Janney. The Last of the Lenape and Other Poems. 

Phila. and Boston. 
John K. Mitchell. Indecision, a Tale of the West, and 

Other Poems. Phila. 
*R. M. and T. J. Charlton. Poems. Boston. 
*F. D. Rouquette. Meschacebeennes (French). Cf. For- 

tier. 
Anon. Whigs and Democrats. A Comedy. Richmond. 
*J. N. Maffitt. Poems. Louisville. Ireland. Louisville. 
A. Alexander. The Fall of Aztalan. Washington. 

1840. E. S. Seward. Columbiad Poems. Balto. 
J. St. George. Leisure Moments. Balto. 

L. F. Lehmanowski. The Fall of Warsaw. A Tragedy. 
Balto. 

C. W. Thomson. A Poem. Balto. 

N. C. Brooks. The Literary Amaranth. Phila. and 

Balto. 
G. H. Calvert. Cabiro. Cantos I. and II. Balto. Count 

Julian. Balto. 
J. N. M'Jilton. Poems. Boston. 
J. Breck. West Point, etc. Historical Drama. Balto. 

1841. Anon. The Paradise of Fools. Balto. 

J. N. M'Jilton. An Address: A Poem. Balto. 
*W. R. Smith. The Alabama Justice (Poem?). New 
York. 

D. Bryan. A Tribute, etc. Alexandria. 

*C. F. Deems. Devotional Melodies. Raleigh. 
A. E. Rouquette. Les Savanes. Cf. Fortier. 
C. Soran (or Swan). The Patapsco, etc. Balto. 
N. C. Brooks. History of the Church. (Poem?) Balto. 
S. L. Fairfield. Poems and Prose Writings. Phila. 

*Inclucled in Thesis. 



14r2 Chronology of Poetry. 



1842. J. S. Hopkins. Poetical Works. Balto. 

♦A. J. Requier. The Spanish Exile. A Drama. 
Anon. Ahasuerus. By a Virginian. New York. Cf. 

So. Qr. Review, II., 312. 
L. F. Thomas. Inda and Other Poems. St. Louis. 
S. L. Fairfield. Poetical Works. Phila. 

1843. W. G. Simms. Donna Florida. A Tale. Charleston. 
Anon. Julian. A Tragedy. Balto. 

Anon. ("Fletcheran.") Wesleyan Checks, etc. Balto. 
♦Catherine Warfield (.with Eleanor Lee). The Wife of 
Leon and Other Poems. New York. 

Mrs. R. J. Avery. Woodnotes Wild. Nashville. 

Mrs. C. L. Hentz. DeLara, etc. A Tragedy. Tusca- 
loosa. 

1844. F. W. Thomas. The Beechen Tree and Other Poems. 

New York. 
Anon. A Walk About Vicksburg. Boston. 
J. A. Young. The Age of Brass. Balto. 
E. C. Pinkney. Miscellaneous Poems. The Rococo, No. 

2. N. Y. 

1845. W. G. Simms. Grouped Thoughts and Scattered Fan- 

cies. Richmond. Edited the Charleston Book. 
Edgar A. Poe. The Raven and Other Poems. New 

York. 
T. H. Chivers. The Lost Pleiad and Other Poems. New 

York. 
C. C. Pise. Acts of the Apostles done into Blank Verse. 
♦Amelia B. Welby. Poems by Amelia. Boston. 
♦Theodore O'Hara. The Old Pioneer. 

1846. W. G. Simms. Areytos, or Songs of the South. Charles- 

ton. 

Catherine Warfield and Eleanor Lee. The Indian Cham- 
ber and Other Poems. New York. 

Anon. Emblems of Mortality. Charleston. 

G. Grimes. The Lily of the West. Nashville. 

.T. Lofland. Poetical Writings. Balto. 

J. R. McConochie. Leisure Hours. Louisville, Ky. 

♦Included in Tlipsis. 



Chronology of Poetry. 143 

"Nemo" (of Louisiana — Jolin L. Megee?). Reveries in 

Rhyme. N. Y. 
William Munford. Homer's Iliad. 2 vols. Boston. 
Wm. Ross Wallace. Wordsworth. New York. 
Anon. ("Quilp.") The Bridal Ballad. Norfolk, Va. 

1847. C. M. Farmer. The Fairy, etc. Richmond. 
E, Parmly. Address, etc. Balto. 

*P. P. Cooke. Froissart Ballads and Other Poems. 

Phila. 
Theodore O'Hara. The Bivouac of the Dead. 
G. H. Calvert. Poems. Boston. 
L. F. Thomas. Rhymes of the Routs, etc. Washington. 

1848. *J. M. Legare. Orta-Undis and other Poems. Boston. 

Anon. "Charleston" answered by a Charleston Lady. 
Charleston. 

Anon. The Humble Effort. Balto. 

Mrs. Elizabeth W. Long. The Parallel. Balto. 

W. G. Simms. Charleston and Her Satirists. Charles- 
ton. Atalantis, etc. Phila. Lays of the Palmetto. 
Charleston. 

Anon. The Poet and His Song. Charleston. 

Anon. Poems by a South Carolinian. Charleston. 

Anon. (Anne S. Robinson.) Poetic Reveries. Balto. 

E. M. P. Rose. Poetry of Locofocoism. Wellsburg, Va. 

G. Yellott. The Maid of Peru. Balto. 

Anon. The Thompsonian Quack. Balto. 
*Louisa S. McCord. My Dreams. Phila. 

Wm. Ross Wallace. Alban the Pirate. New York. 

G. W. Cutter. Buena Vista, etc. Cincinnati. 

A. E. Rouquette. Wild Flowers. New Orleans. Cf. 
Stockb., 225. 

1849. W. G. Simms. The Cassiciue of Accabee. New York. 

Sabbath Lyrics. Charleston, 
Anon. Lamentations of a Bereaved Mother. Farm- 

ville, Va. 
E. W. F. Cheves. Sketches in Prose and Verse. Balto. 
*Margaret Junkin (Mrs. Preston). Fugitive Poems. 

♦Included in Thesis. 



144 Chronology of Poetry, 

♦Catherine G Poyas. Huguenot Daughters and Other 

Poems. Charleston. 
♦Sidney Dyer. Voices of Nature. Louisville, Ky. 
Mrs. Anna H. Dorsey. Flowers of Love and Memory. 

Balto. 
Anon. Cordora. A Poetical Romance. St. Louis. 

1850. W. G. Simms. The City of the Silent. Charleston. 
♦Henry R. Jackson. Tallulah and other Poems. Savan- 
nah. 

Mary S. Whitaker. Poems. Charleston. 
C. Yellott. Poems. Balto. 

C. A. Price. Poems. Charleston. 

Washington Allston. Lectures on Art. and Poems. New 
York. 

D. A. Payne. The Pleasures, etc. Balto. 

1851. Louisa S. McCord. Caius Gracchus. A Tragedy. New 

York. 
Wm. Ross Wallace. Meditations in America, etc. New 

York. 
*Mary Elizabeth Lee. Poetical Remains. Charleston. 

E. A. Currie. Masonry. Balto. 

Robert G. Barnwell. Editor the New Orleans Book. 

New Orleans. 
Anon. (W. A. W.) Poems by a Priest. Salisbury, Md. 
Miss Smiley. Poems by "Matilda." Richmond. 
C. W. Young. Greatness Reviewed. Savannah. 
T. H. Chivers. Eonchs of Ruby. New York. 
B. T. Pindle. Miscellaneous Poems. Balto. 
Anon. Cooper's Wells, etc. Jackson, Miss. 
W. G. Simms. Norman Maurice. A Drama. Richmond. 
1852. Mrs. J. M. Cabell. An Odd Volume. Richmond. 

W. G. Simms. Michael Bonham. A Tale of Texas. 

Richmond. 
J. W. Simmons. The Greek Girl. Boston. 
J. S. Freligh. Poems. St. Louis. 
1858. T. H. Chivers. Memoralia; Full of the Tears of Love; 

A Gi-ft for the Beautiful; Virginalia. Phila. 

*I lU'l luled J ii^Thosis. 



Chronology of Poetry. 145 

W. G. Simms. Poems Descriptive, etc. New York and 

Charleston. Egeria. Phila. 
Anon. (H. J. K.) Friendship's Echo. Balto. 
Lizzie Patterson. Songs in Affliction. 2d ed. Balto. 

1854. Emrna M. Blake. Reliquae. Charleston. 
"Seriilan" (Laurens?). Poems. Charleston. 

Sidney Dyer. Psalmist for the Use of Baptist Churches. 
Mrs. M. B. Clark. Wood Notes. North Carolina poetry. 

2 vols. Raleigh. 
W. J. Grayson. The Hireling and the Slave. Charleston. 
Albert Pike. Nugae. Phila. 

1855. T. H. Chivers. Atlanta, etc. Macon, Ga. 
Mrs. Margaret J. Preston. Transl. Dies Irae. 

Anon. ("Ruth Rustic") Forget-me-nots, etc. Wash- 
ington. 
J. Haynes, M. D. Savannah. A Poem. Savannah. 
*Hew Ainslie. Scottish Songs,, etc. New York. 
*Paul H. Hayne. Poems. Boston. 
*Alexander B. Meek. Red Eagle: A Poem of the South. 

New York. 
John H. Alexander. Catena Dominica. Phila. 
James Avis Bartley. Lays of Ancient Virginia. Rich- 
mond. 
A. L. Taveau ("Alton"). The Magic Word. Boston and 
Cambridge. 

1856. P. Barrett. Flowers, etc. Richmond. 
Yates (?). The Italian Bride. Savannah. 
Anon. (L. H. S.) Joan of Arc. Richmond. 

Anon. (Judge Stump?) The Battle of Cannae. Balto. 
C. Yellott. The Professor of Insanity. A Drama. Balto. 
G. H. Calvert. Comedies. Boston. 
Anon. Proceedings of Orphan House of Charleston. 

Contains poems by W. J. Grayson, H. Timrod, and 

Rev. J. R. Kendrick, Charleston. 
Wm. J. Graj^son. Chicora and Other Poems. 

1857. A. B. Meek. Songs and Poems of the South. New York 

and Mobile. 
P. H. Hayne. Sonnets and Other Poems. Charleston. 

*Ineludecl in Thesis. 
19 



146 Chronology of Poetry. 

L. F. Thomas. Cortez the Conqueror. A Tragedy. 

Washington. 
J. Fitz. Gallery of Poetic Pictures. Richmond. 
J. S . Moore, Abrah, the Conspirator. A Tragedy. 

Washington. 
♦James Barron Hope. Leoni di Monota, etc. Phila. 

Jamestown Anniversary Poem. Richmond. 
Francis Scott Key. Poems. Edited by H. V. D. Johns. 

New York. 
Sidney Dyer. Songs and Ballads. New York. 
G. W. Cutter. Poems. Phila. Poems and Fugitive 

Pieces. Cincinnati. 

1858. T. H. Chivers. The Sons of Usna. A Tragedy. Phila. 

C. C. Cox. Female Education. Frederick, Md. 

D. Hardy, Jr. Poems. New York. 

C. C. Lee. Virginia Georgics. Richmond. 
Dudley A. Tyng. Stand Up for Jesus, etc. Phila. 
♦John R. Thompson. Opening Ode, ^tc. Richmond. 
Wm. J. Grayson. The Country: A Poem. 

1859. B. J. Newman. The Eagle of Washington, etc. Louis- 

ville. 
C. P. Russell. In Tenebris. Columbia, S. C. 
Susan A. Talley. Poems. New York. 
J. B. Hope. Poems. New York. 
R. Furman. The Pleasures of Piety, etc. Charleston. 
John R. Thompson. Poesy: An Essay in Rhyme. 

Washington. 

1860. Annie R. Blount. Poems. Augusta, Ga. 
J. Michard. A Trilogy. Richmond. 
Anon. The Mock Auction. Richmond. 
Anon. Ida Randolph of Virginia. Phila. 
Wm. H. Holcombe. Poems. New York. 
Carrie B. Sinclair. Poems. Augusta, Ga. 

William R. Smith. The Uses of Solitude. Tuscaloosa. 
♦Henry Timrod. Poems. Boston. 
P. H. Hayne. Avolio, etc. Boston. 
A. J. Requier. Poems. Phila. 

^Included in Thesis. 



Chronology of Poetry. 147 

W. G. Simms. Areytos, or Songs and Ballads of the 

South, etc. New York and Charleston. 
W. H. Wright. Remorse. Balto. 
Geo. D. Prentice. Poems. Prenticeana, &c. 
Wm. J. Grayson. Marion (narrative poem). 

The following have been found without dates: 

M. Barnett. Yankee Peddler, or Old Times in Virginia. A 
Farce. New York. N. d. 

M. Guerin. Satire against Satire. French and English. Balto. 

Anon. (In pencil, "A Marylander.") Satan Unbound. A Dra- 
matic Poem. No place. No date. 

Jennie Yates. Fragments. Balto. 



JJIBLEOGKAPHY.-^ 

• * 

Alden's Cyclopedia of Universal Literature. 20 vols. N. Y. 

1885-'91. 
^ Adams, C. K. Manual of Historical Literature. New York, 

1888.t 
Adams, Herbert B. History of the College of William r^nd 

Mary. U. S. Government. 1887. 
Adams, Oscar F. Hand-book of American Authors. Boston. 

1884. 
Alden, John. Dictionary of Contemporary Biography. 
Allibone, S. Austin. Dictionary of Authors. 5 vols. Phila. 
Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography. 6 vols. N. Y. 
American Museum, The, or Repository of Ancient and Modern 

Fugitive Pieces, Prose and Poetical. 11 vols. Phila. 

1787-'92. 
Beers, H. A. A Century of American Literature. New York, 

1878. 
Beers, H. A. Outline Sketch of American Literature. N. Y. 

1886. 
"Byrd Manuscripts." Cf. Tyler's Hist. Amer. Lit. (1607-1765.) 

Vol. II., 272. 
Brown, Alexander. The First Republic in America. Boston. 

1898. The Genesis of the United States. 2 vols. Boston. 
Bryant, Wm. C. Library of Poetry and Song. New York. 
Bozman, John Leeds. History of Maryland, 1633-1660. Balto. 

1837. 
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♦See Preface, page 4 (top). 

+ Invaluablo for its sunimariiv^ and criticisms, especially of the local 
histories, of wliich a full list i« given. 

[148] 



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INDEX QF AUTHORS. 

Page. 

Ainslie, H. (1792-1878) 99 

Allston, W. (1779-1843) 43 

Alsop, George (1638- ) 22 

Bacon's Death, Eulogy, etc 24 

Ballads, Revolutionary, etc 30 

Bland, Col. Theodoric (1742-1790) 32 

Brooks, N. C. (1809- ) . . . / — 

Burt, A. (1802-1883) 51 

Burwell Papers 24 

Calvert, George H. (1803-1889) 74 

Campbell, John W. (1782-1833) 77 

Charlton, R. M. (1807-1854) 77 

Chatterton, A 34 

Chivers, T. H. (1807-1858) ..,.'. 72 

"Cook, Eben, Gent" 27 

Cooke, P. P. (1816-1850) 93 

Crafts, Wm. (1787-1826) 48 

Custis, G. W. P. (1781-1857) 67 

Dabney, Richard (1787-1825) 42 

Deems, C. F. (1820-1893) 79 

Dyer, Sidney (1814- ) 98 

Grave, J 21 

Grayson, Wm. J. (1788-1863) 100 

Harby, I. (1788-1828) 39 

Hardy, D., Jr. (1829-1857) 119 

Harney, John M. (1789-1823) 48 

Hayne, Paul H. (1830-1886) 101 

Holland, Edw. C. (1794-1824) 48 

Hope, James Barron (1829-1887) 107 

[158] 



Index of Aicthors. 159 

Page. 

Jackson, H. R. (1820- ) 98 

Janney, Samuel M. (1801-1880) 63 

Key, Francis Scott (1779-1843) 46,47 

Ladd, J. B. (1764-1786) 34 

Lee, Mary E. (1813-1849) 99 

Lee, Eleanor 83 

Legar4, J. M. (1823-1859) 95 

McCabe, J. C. (1810-1875) 72 

McCord, Louisa S. (1810-1880) 96 

McClurg, James (1747-1825) 33, 34 

Maffitt, J. N. (1795-1850) 78 

Maxwell, Wm. (1784-1857) 41 

Meek, A. B. (1814-1865) 105 

Mitchell, John K. (1798-1858) 50 

Moise, Penina (1797-1880) 71 

Muller, A. A. (c. 1800- ) _ 54 

Munford, Robt, Col 35 

Munford, Wm. (1775-1825) 89 

O'Hara, Theodore (1820-1867) 85 

Pike, Albert (1809-1881) 67 

Pinkney, E. C. (1802-1828) 51 

Pise, C. C. (1802-1866) 71 

Poe, Edgar A. (1809-1849) 64 

Poyas, C. G. (1813-1882) 98 

Prentice, Geo. D. (1802-1870 120 

Preston, M. J. (1825-1897) 96 

Revolutionary Songs and Ballads 30-32 

Requier, A. J. (1825-1887) |83 

Rich, R. (fl. 1610) 14 

Rouquette, P. D. (1810- ) 77 

Rouquette, A. E. (1813-1887) 78 

Sandys, George (1577-1644) 15 

Sawyer, L. (1772-1852) 54 

Shaw, John (1778-1809) 40 



!♦><> Index of AutJiors. 

Pnge. 

Simmons, J. W 49 

Simms, Wm. G. (1806-1870) 55 

Smitji, Capt. John (1579-1631) 20 

Smith, W. R. (1813- ) 78^^ 

Sot- Weed Redivivus ' 2z/ 

Spierin, G. H 38 

Thomas, L. F. (1815-1868) 76 

Thomas, F. W. (1810-1864) 71 

Thompson, John R. (1823-1873) Ill 

Timrod, Henry (1829-1867) 121 

Timrod, Wm. H. (1792-1838) 69 

Tucker. St. G. (1752-1827) 33,35 

Wallace, Wm. R. (1819-1881) 75 

Warfield, Catherine (1816-1877) 83 

Weems, M. L. (c. 1760-1825) 38, 39 

Welby, Amelia B. (1819-1852) 84 

Wilde, R. H. (1789-1847) 79 



YITA. 

I was born in Tipton county, Tennessee, tlie second 
son of Sidney J. and Mollie H. Bradsliaw. During my 
infancy my parents went to reside in Memphis, and later 
in Forrest City, Arkansas, wliere my early boyliood was 
passed. After attending various elementary schools I 
entered Bethel College, Russellville, Kentucky, took 
the Bachelor of Arts course, and graduated in the 
class of 1891. The following year (1891-'92) I was 
instructor in English, Latin, and Mathematics at Bards- 
town Male and Female Institute, Bardstown, Kentucky. 
In the fall of 1892 I entered the Universitv of Yirsiinia, 
and remained until called to act as Professor of English 
at Bethel College, Russellville, Kentucky, for the session 
of 18 94-' 9 6, during the absence in Germany of Profes- 
sor John P. Fruit. The summer of 1895 I spent travel- 
ing in England,, Scotland, France, Switzerland, and 
Italy. Beturning to America, I again entered the 
University of Virginia, and continued until 189 Y, when 
elected to the I^. Long Chair of English in Bethel 
College. This position I filled from 189Y to 1899, spend- 
ing the summers of 1898 and 1899 at the University of 
Chicago, and returning to the University of Virginia in 
September, 1899. Here the post-graduate course 
already begun was completed, and the degree of Doctor 

of Philosophy was conferred June 13, 1900. The Chair 

[161] 



162 Vita. 

of English in Bethel College being again vacant, I was 
re-elected to it in Julj, 1900. 

Mj work at the University of Virginia was very pro- 
fitable, and to Professors James M. Garnett, William H. 
Perkinson (lately deceased), Kichard Heath Dabney, 
James A. Harrison, Noah K. Davis, and Charles "W. 
Kent, I am imder great and lasting obligations. All 
were solicitous as to my welfare, but especially so was 
Dr. Charles W. Kent, whose kindness and thoughtful- 
ness were helpful in very iiiany ways. 

Sidney Eknest Bradshaw. 

Russellville, Kentucky. 



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